A breakthrough in quantum computing has brought us closer to discovering new, more effective, and safer drugs. Qubit Pharmaceuticals, a company founded in 2020 by five renowned scientists – Louis Lagardère, Matthieu Montes, Jean-Philip Piquemal, Jay Ponder, and Pengyu Ren – has made significant progress in using quantum computers for drug discovery. The company’s Atlas platform leverages hybrid high-performance computing (HPC) and quantum computing to simulate and model molecules.
Qubit Pharmaceuticals’ work is supported by the European Innovation Council (EIC) and involves collaboration with Sorbonne Université, a leading research-intensive university in France. Élisabeth Angel-Perez, Vice-President Research and Innovation at Sorbonne Université, praised Qubit Pharmaceuticals’ innovative approaches, highlighting the potential of quantum computers for quantum chemistry.
Scaleway, a cloud provider, has also contributed to Qubit Pharmaceuticals’ breakthrough by providing its GPU computing power. Sébastien Luttringer, Head of R&D at Scaleway, emphasized the importance of developing software solutions to harness the power of quantum computing.
The company has successfully developed a hybrid classical/quantum approach that enables the distribution of calculations between classical GPUs and quantum computers. This strategy allows for the optimization of algorithms and reduces the need for physical qubits on quantum machines. The team has managed to solve equations that would require 250 logic qubits, a significant leap from their previous achievement of 40 qubits just a few months ago.
What’s remarkable about this approach is its generalist nature, making it applicable to various types of quantum chemistry calculations, not limited to pharmaceuticals but also catalysts and materials. The potential implications for drug discovery are enormous, as this technology could lead to the development of more effective and safer drugs.
The next steps for Qubit Pharmaceuticals include deploying these algorithms on existing noisy machines to quantify the impact of noise and comparing performance with recent calculations by IBM and Google. They will also predict the properties of molecules of pharmaceutical interest using new software acceleration methods that can reach regimes requiring over 400 qubits with purely quantum approaches.
The quotes from Robert Marino, CEO of Qubit Pharmaceuticals, Jean-Philip Piquemal, Professor at Sorbonne University, Élisabeth Angel-Perez, Vice-President Research and Innovation at Sorbonne Université, and Sébastien Luttringer, Head of R&D at Scaleway, all highlight the significance of this breakthrough and the importance of progressing simultaneously on hardware and software development.
As a science journalist, I’m excited to see how this technology will continue to evolve and its potential impact on various industries. The collaboration between Qubit Pharmaceuticals, Sorbonne Université, and Scaleway demonstrates the power of interdisciplinary research and innovation in driving progress in quantum computing and its applications.
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