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PALO ALTO, Calif., March 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ --QC Ware, makers of Promethium, a quantum-inspired, molecular discovery platform, announced today it is leveragingNVIDIA Quantum Cloud to accelerate drug discovery by providing AI platforms with the ability to generate highly accurate training data on large, complex molecules faster than ever before, aiming to redefine the landscape of in silico molecular simulation. These are critical problems that will be accelerated by future quantum computers, but today are best solved by advanced methods on GPUs. This will enable molecular AI platforms to train better ML models, ultimately helping pharmaceutical companies find quality drug candidates more quickly.

NVIDIA Quantum Cloud is a microservice that lets users for the first time build and test in the cloud new quantum algorithms and applications, including powerful simulators and tools for hybrid quantum-classical programming.

Promethium to Empower ML Models for Drug Discovery Using NVIDIA Quantum Cloud

"Promethium is helping steer the future of drug discovery and this latest work with NVIDIA signifies our commitment to advancing pharmaceutical research and underscores the importance of technological innovation in the quest for groundbreaking solutions to some of the most challenging medicinal problems of modern times," said Paul Baines, VP of Product & Engineering, at QC Ware.

ML models are already playing a large role in drug discovery, accelerating the ability to find new and promising candidates for clinical trials over historical methods. With an abundance of these ML models coming into play, one of the main challenges that research leaders face is determining the quality of the models they are using. Typically, the best ML models are trained on the best data. This has created a need for large amounts of extremely high-quality data.

The molecular data that currently exists is limited in scale, scope, and application. To build the best general-purpose ML model, or to customize an ML model for a specific purpose, lots of data must be generated and fast. Promethium is on a journey to generate the highest-quality data faster than it's ever been done. AI platforms for drug discovery are already taking advantage of these benefits. One example is a venture-backed start-up using Promethium to create highly accurate data, very quickly, and at scale.

"For representative systems we currently run today, Promethium is 30 times faster than our current toolsets," says the startup's CTO. "This means that we can generate high-quality training data faster, leading to extremely accurate ML models for researchers to use. The result? Truly transformative ML models that will unlock massive amounts of value for pharmaceutical companies."

Additionally, this type of data has yet to be created at scale for larger molecules. This was primarily due to how computationally intensive it was to create accurate data for molecular modeling. This limitation kept ML models from accurately predicting properties of larger molecules. Promethium's breakthrough software, combined with NVIDIA's state-of-the-art GPUs and cloud scalability, has unlocked the ability to create training data for large, complex molecules that will fuel the advanced capabilities of innovative AI platforms.

"Quantum computing has the potential to transform drug discovery," said Tim Costa, Director of HPC and Quantum at NVIDIA. "Promethium is using NVIDIA Quantum Cloud to rapidly generate training data on large, complex molecules, enabling better machine learning models that will help pharmaceutical companies find drug candidates more quickly."

Leaders in the pharmaceutical industry are already taking advantage of AI as a force multiplier in the drug discovery race. Not only is it helping them hone in on more promising candidates more quickly, but it's also creating a new benchmark for efficiency in R&D spend. Companies that are able to wield this technology effectively will be poised to achieve or better maintain industry dominance in the new age of drug discovery.

About QC Ware

Promethium is a quantum chemistry SaaS platform developed by QC Ware, a quantum and classical computing software and services company focused on delivering enterprise value through cutting-edge computational technology. With specialization in machine learning and chemistry simulation applications, QC Ware develops software for both near-term quantum and state-of-the-art classical computing hardware. QC Ware's team is composed of some of the industry's foremost experts in quantum and classical computing. QC Ware is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and supports its European customers through its subsidiary in Paris and customers in Asia through its business development office in Tokyo, Japan.

Media Contact:[emailprotected] 317-525-5882

SOURCE QC Ware Corp.

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Accelerating the Development of New Molecules - Promethium to Empower ML Models for Drug Discovery Using ... - PR Newswire

European MPs caution against the impending quantum computing revolution, which promises to undermine current encryption safeguards. Experts echo this urgency, warning that existing security measures for sensitive data are on borrowed time. With quantum computers inching closer to breaking mathematical keys and countries like China showing an insatiable appetite for data, the race is on to develop quantum-safe products.

The specter of quantum computing, with its potential to crack the cryptographic keys that protect everything from personal emails to state secrets, casts a long shadow over the digital world. European MPs, led by Dutch MP Bart Groothuis, have sounded a clarion call in a letter they sent to the European Commission: the cryptography underpinning our computer security systems is a ticking time bomb. This alarm is not unfounded. With quantum computings ability to process complex calculations at breakneck speeds, the security protocols we rely on today could be rendered obsolete almost overnight.

Quantum computing is set to disrupt our computing possibilities, fundamentally disrupting computation. However, quantum computing doesnt come without its own risks, as it has the potential to undermine current data encryption safeguards.

Quantum computers differ radically from todays computers. They utilize qubits, which, through superposition, can represent both one and zero simultaneously. This fundamental change in computation allows quantum computers to solve specific problemslike factoring large numbers, the basis of much of our encryptionexponentially faster than classical computers. When a quantum computer with enough stable qubits comes online, it could break the RSA-2048 encryption, a standard for securing web traffic, within a day. The more optimistic estimates give this scenario an 11 percent chance of occurring within the next five years, a figure that rises to a worrying 33 percent over the next fifteen years.

Quantum technology professor Pepijn Pinkse: The best time to get quantum security right was yesterday.

His inaugural lecture took place early last month; in practice, Pepijn Pinkse has been working as a professor of quantum technology at the University of Twente (UT) for several years. His lecture focused on creating awareness around quantum security and the threat posed by quantum technology. The best time to get quantum security right was yesterday, he said.

In a letter that underscores the gravity of the situation, MEPs laid out the stark timeline we face: switching to a new cryptographic standard could take over a decade, paralleling past transitions like the adoption of the SHA2 hashing algorithm and the AES symmetrical algorithm. The letter implores major organizations to begin preparations immediately for a complete post-quantum cryptography (PQC) transition. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States has already identified algorithms for this purpose, with choices like CRYSTALS-Kyber for public key encryption and CRYSTALS-Dilithium, FALCON, and SPHINCS+ for digital signatures.

The MEPs letter recommends that the European Commission, alongside bodies such as the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), and the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), offer clear guidance on what constitutes appropriate security measures in anticipation of quantum capabilities. The MEPs suggest this should include inventorying current algorithms, assessing new cryptographic libraries, deploying hybrid encryption systems, and beginning a phased deployment of NIST-approved standards.

Largest investment in Dutch quantum company to date

Dutch quantum company QphoX has raised a 8 million funding round in a major development for the countrys fast-growing quantum industry. It is the largest investment in a quantum company in the Netherlands to date.

Professor Pepijn Pinkse, a quantum technology expert, previouslypep warned about the risks of quantum computing security. Pinkses work underscores the fundamental shift required in our approach to cryptography. Most current cryptography relies on the difficulty of reversing the multiplication of large prime numbers. Quantum computing, particularly using the Shor algorithm, could make that reversal trivial. Pinkse and other experts indicate that Q-Daywhen current cryptographic security systems capitulate to quantum computingis less than a decade away.

Indeed, the quest to build a quantum computer is not just a scientific challengeits a geopolitical one. The past decade has seen a quadrupling in the number of companies actively developing quantum computing hardware. Investment in the field has been substantial, with multiple funding rounds in the quantum computing market exceeding $100 million between 2022 and 2024. National laboratories and supercomputing centres, often driven by government interest, are pouring resources into early-stage machines. The implications for economic and national security are profound.

It remains to be seen how the European Unions institutions and member states will react to the MEPs letter. Will they heed the warnings and start the necessary transitions to safeguard against the quantum threat? The clock is ticking, and as the MEPs letter makes clear, the time to act is nowbefore the quantum revolution undoes the digital security weve come to rely on.

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European MPs sound alarm over quantum computing's encryption threat - Innovation Origins

quantum computing

Quantum computing represents a fundamental shift from classical computing, which relies on solving problems through rapid trial and error.

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2024 While quantum computing holds the promise of solving complex problems exponentially faster than current supercomputers, it raises significant challenges for cybersecurity, a panel of experts said during Wednesdays Broadband Breakfast Live Online session.

Quantum computing represents a fundamental shift from classical computing, which relies on solving problems through rapid trial and error, said Ryan Lafler, president and chief technology officer of Quantum Corridor, a research group.

Broadband Breakfast on March 13, 2024 Quantum Computing and Broadband

Quantum computing could be a harbinger of change for future broadband networks

"Quantum compute is the ability to transmit all states of information, all states of bandwidth at the same time, rather than through rapid trial and error, one at a time," Lafler said.

Operating on principles of entanglement and superposition, quantum mechanics enables particles to exist in multiple states or positions simultaneously.

The transition to quantum computing raises significant challenges in that traditional encryption methods may become vulnerable to quantum attacks, necessitating the development of quantum-resistant algorithms. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is leading efforts to standardize these new cryptographic techniques, with the first set of candidates released for public review, said Lafter.

Gary Bolton, CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, emphasized the importance of fiber optic networks in enabling the quantum future.

"If your community doesn't have fiber, you will be left behind," Bolton said. "You will be in the dark ages forever because you cannot upgrade from a LEO satellite to fiber to the home without building out all the infrastructure."

Fiber networks are crucial for enabling low-latency, high-capacity quantum communications, which are essential for the practical deployment of quantum computing, he said.

Vaibhav Garg, executive director of cybersecurity and privacy research at Comcast, highlighted the potential for quantum computing to solve complex problems in fields such as pharmaceutical development and battery technology.

He also noted the challenges in developing quantum-resistant cryptography to protect against the threat of quantum computers being used to break current encryption methods.

Broadband Breakfast on March 13, 2024 Quantum Computing and Broadband

Quantum computing could be a harbinger of change for future broadband networks

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Quantum Computing and Networking Poised to Revolutionize Cryptography - BroadbandBreakfast.com

There are growing concerns about quantum computers eventual ability to circumvent commonly used encryption. That could still be decades away, but 20 Members of the European Parliament, led by Dutch MEP Bart Groothuis, want organizations to start preparing themselves. The Dutch intelligence service AIVD shares the concerns, NOS reports.

Cryptographic keys are currently the most used way to prevent unauthorized persons from reading communications, from sensitive communications between governments to text messages on WhatsApp. The encryption mathematically scrambles the data. Regular computers cannot crack that key in practice because the number of possible mathematical combinations is so high. But there are growing fears that quantum computers, which work fundamentally differently, will eventually be able to do that.

Quantum computing has not reached that point yet, and Q-Day may still be decades away. But governments and critical organizations must already start protecting themselves. We see an enormous hunger for data in countries like China, the AIVD told the broadcaster. These countries are already intercepting data in the hope that theyll be able to crack the encryption at some point. It is, therefore, important that organizations whose data will still be sensitive in a few decades time to already implement quantum-safe protection. Software developers need to work on that urgently, the AVID said.

We must start this now, MEP Groothuis told the broadcaster. He initiated a public letter by 20 MEPs calling on governments and organizations to implement other ways to protect their data. We cannot take that risk. The most important organizations must start doing this now.

Switching to other algorithms that are more resistant to quantum computers will be a complicated process because both the sender and receiver must use the same technology. With a banking website, for example, both the banks web server and the web browser must support the same new technology.

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Growing concenrs about quantum computers' ability to break commonly used encryption - NL Times

This extreme fragility might make quantum computing sound hopeless. But in 1995, the applied mathematician Peter Shor discovered a clever way to store quantum information. His encoding had two key properties. First, it could tolerate errors that only affected individual qubits. Second, it came with a procedure for correcting errors as they occurred, preventing them from piling up and derailing a computation. Shors discovery was the first example of a quantum error-correcting code, and its two key properties are the defining features of all such codes.

The first property stems from a simple principle: Secret information is less vulnerable when its divided up. Spy networks employ a similar strategy. Each spy knows very little about the network as a whole, so the organization remains safe even if any individual is captured. But quantum error-correcting codes take this logic to the extreme. In a quantum spy network, no single spy would know anything at all, yet together theyd know a lot.

Each quantum error-correcting code is a specific recipe for distributing quantum information across many qubits in a collective superposition state. This procedure effectively transforms a cluster of physical qubits into a single virtual qubit. Repeat the process many times with a large array of qubits, and youll get many virtual qubits that you can use to perform computations.

The physical qubits that make up each virtual qubit are like those oblivious quantum spies. Measure any one of them and youll learn nothing about the state of the virtual qubit its a part ofa property called local indistinguishability. Since each physical qubit encodes no information, errors in single qubits wont ruin a computation. The information that matters is somehow everywhere, yet nowhere in particular.

You cant pin it down to any individual qubit, Cubitt said.

All quantum error-correcting codes can absorb at least one error without any effect on the encoded information, but they will all eventually succumb as errors accumulate. Thats where the second property of quantum error-correcting codes kicks inthe actual error correction. This is closely related to local indistinguishability: Because errors in individual qubits dont destroy any information, its always possible to reverse any error using established procedures specific to each code.

Zhi Li, a postdoc at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada, was well versed in the theory of quantum error correction. But the subject was far from his mind when he struck up a conversation with his colleague Latham Boyle. It was the fall of 2022, and the two physicists were on an evening shuttle from Waterloo to Toronto. Boyle, an expert in aperiodic tilings who lived in Toronto at the time and is now at the University of Edinburgh, was a familiar face on those shuttle rides, which often got stuck in heavy traffic.

Normally they could be very miserable, Boyle said. This was like the greatest one of all time.

Before that fateful evening, Li and Boyle knew of each others work, but their research areas didnt directly overlap, and theyd never had a one-on-one conversation. But like countless researchers in unrelated fields, Li was curious about aperiodic tilings. Its very hard to be not interested, he said.

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Never-Repeating Patterns of Tiles Can Safeguard Quantum Information - WIRED