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The Wellcome Trust has selected the Cleveland Clinic-IBM Discovery Accelerator to develop proof-of-concept demonstrations of quantum computing for biologic and health applications through the Wellcome Leap Quantum for Bio Challenge.

WHY IT MATTERS

Q4Bio by Wellcome Leap, a U.S.- based nonprofit organization aiming to accelerate and increase the number of breakthroughs in global health, seeks to codevelop health applications that demonstrate benefit from the use of quantum computers and are expected to emerge over the next three to five years.

In addition to an award for up to $40 million to fund two projects that focus on the manifestation of disease and use of quantum physics to prevent and treat cancer, the team may receive $10 million in challenge prizes for successful, scalable technologies and approaches.

Cleveland Clinic and IBM installed the first quantum system dedicated to healthcare research on the main campus earlier this year, according to Wednesday's announcement.

Since Cleveland Clinic and IBM announced their intentions to advance biomedical research through high-performance computing, artificial intelligence and quantum computing in 2021, the Cleveland Clinic-IBM Discovery Accelerator researchers have been working on a portfolio of projects that generate and quickly analyze large amounts of data for a wide range of disease-focused research.

Deployment of the quantum system was a key milestone in the organizations 10-year partnership, said Cleveland Clinic and IBM.

For Q4Bio, the accelerator will focus on protein-conformation prediction with quantum computing, which could lead to new insights into how proteins function and interact with other molecules to better understand the manifestation of diseases and develop more effective, targeted therapies.

The team will work to develop quantum algorithms and workflows to explore how they could contribute to the creation of universal, scalable methods for predicting protein structures more accurately and quickly.

For the second project, Algorithmiq joins the collaborators to create a set of computational tools that aims to explore how quantum computing could assist in the development of photon-activated drugs for cancer.

The quantum computing for photon-drug interactions in cancer prevention and cancer treatment will leverage Algorithmiqs drug discovery platform, Aurora, which uses IBMs quantum hardware, and Cleveland Clinics experience developing drug applications.

THE LARGER TREND

Quantum computing canturbocharge healthcare data analytics, benefitting medical imaging, pathology and more.

"This technology holds tremendous promise in revolutionizing healthcare and expediting progress toward new cares, cures and solutions for patients," said Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Tom Mihaljevic in a statement announcing the health system'sdeployment of IBM Quantum System One.

"Quantum and other advanced computing technologies will help researchers tackle historic scientific bottlenecks and potentially find new treatments for patients with diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes," he added.

Theuse of quantum physics to help destroy cancer cellsin a study by Kyoto University, announced in 2021, used X-rays on tumor tissue containing iodine-carrying nanoparticles, triggering cancer cell death within three days.

At the time, researchers said they were able to produce a quantum-physics phenomenon inside a cancer cell by generating low-energy electrons close to DNA and inflicting damage difficult to repair, which eventually led to programmed cell death.

ON THE RECORD When the IBM supercomputerwas first deployedat Cleveland Clinic this past March, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna noted how Quantum System One would enable researchers to "explore and uncover new scientific advancements in biomedical research. By combining the power of quantum computing, artificial intelligence and other next-generation technologies with Cleveland Clinic's world-renowned leadership in healthcare and life sciences, we hope to ignite a new era of accelerated discovery."

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News. Email:afox@himss.org Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

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Cleveland Clinic, IBM to lead new quantum computing for health ... - Healthcare IT News

Few would argue that 2023 has been the year of AI. But it's not the only deep tech worth your attention.

The ecosystem in quantum technology is rapidly evolving thanks to government investment and infrastructure, academic partnerships, university spinouts, and industry traction.

The race is on to scale quantum tech from conceptual to a solver of broader societal and economic impact.

Currently, the UK is the world's third largest quantum developing country, after the USA and China, attracting more startups and capital investment than any other European state.

But one investment company has its sights on a far smaller country with the potential to become a world leader in quantum technology Denmark.

Quantum Exponential is the UK's first venture capital firm specialising in quantum technology, and recently opened its first European office in Copenhagen.

And according to Stuart Woods, CSO of Quantum Exponential, Denmark is the place to watch for the next explosion of quantum innovation and it goes way beyond the supercomputers that captivate many journalists.

I spoke to Woods to learn more about why the company has its sights set on Denmark and about what this all means regarding the commercialisation of quantum computing and Europe's wider quantum strategy in Europe.

But first let's take a look at what's interesting about Denmark.

To date, 17 countries have invested in national quantum technology research and development programs, with an estimated spending of over $30 billion.

Denmark announced the second part of its National Quantum Strategy last month, focusing on the commercialisation, security and international collaboration in the field of quantum technology.

Besides this framework on paper, the country has the necessary, and proven, trinity that interconnected relationship between academia, government, and enterprise/industry with real commercial use cases that turn the technology into something tangible.

According to Woods:

"The quantum field in Denmark is experiencing momentum, and we are excited to be at its epicentre.

Recent global dynamics and our deepened understanding of quantum technology make Copenhagen an ideal location for nurturing the next generation of quantum technology."

The government has allocated 161 million from 2024-2027 to strengthen Denmark's quantum ecosystem. It doesn't look all that impressive compared to the investments of the UK government, especially considering some of the big raises in the commercial that we've seen recently. Still, it's pretty good for a three-year project in a far smaller country.

Last year, the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen also became the home of a new NATO Center for Quantum Technologies. The Center offers an accelerator site and incubator where companies can mature their technology and bring it to market, as well as test centres for developing components in quantum sensors, quantum encryption devices and quantum computers.

The new centre is also part of NATO's Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA), developing dual-use (civilian and defence) deep tech, which helps solve challenging defence and security problems.

Further, 2022 saw research from the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen receive a grant of $200 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation to build a full-scale generally applicable quantum computer before the end of 2034. The project will run for 12 years in collaboration with research groups from leading universities and industries, including from the United States, the Netherlands, Canada and Denmark.

Part of the project includes a fabrication unit, "The Quantum Foundry P/S" to develop, engineer and build the parts needed for one of the world's first fully functional, fault-tolerant and generally applicable quantum computers a huge boost for innovation in hardware engineering.

Additionally, Denmark is home to strong multidisciplinary sectors such as photonics, material science, nanotechnology, and computer science, which complement quantum research.

Quantum Exponential is one of two 100 percent quantum investment funds in the world the other is Quantonation in France.

Since its launch in 2021, it has invested in seven quantum companies.

According to Woods, broadly, a third of investments has been in quantum computing, a third in quantum sensing, and the final third in network and encryption:

"While the media focuses on large quantum computers, we believe very strongly that quantum sensing will be much larger than quantum computing over the next two to three years, to the point where the word quantum will be dropped and it will become known simply as sensing."

Quantum sensing leverages quantum states for precision measurement.

Applications include timing, , navigation, subsurface mapping, and below-cell-level medical imaging, enabling less invasive diagnostics.

These individual quantum states have further enhanced sensitivity, which with the right infrastructure, can be leveraged for new medical understanding , advanced clock systems for mega data centres, and positioning technologies (e.g., for autonomous drones) to the detection of valuable raw materials deposits.

I was curious about Quantum Exponential's investment thesis. Woods explained:

"We focus on businesses a lot of what we see might well be a product line that might not be a business.

So we try to focus on the innovative elements of the investment side and think about how this particular element or technology will be a company and not just a product line of something bigger."

He cites examples in the company's current portfolio such as Oxford Quantum Circuits and Universal Quantum.

Woods expects in the next year to see more quantum spin outs, as well as relocations and consolidations.

Over the last few years in Europe, there have been only a few.

Quantinuum acquired Cambridge Quantum Computing (UK) for an undisclosed amount in 2021.

January 2022 saw a merger between Pasqal, a developer of neutral atom-based quantum technology, and Qu&Co, a quantum algorithm and software developer.

Then, Danish company QDevil was acquired by Israeli company Quantum Machines in March 2022 for an undisclosed amount.

"So I think we'll have more spinouts, but also have more positive and constructive consolidations." "

He describes the quantum ecosystem as "patient" capital, but notes,

"However, at the same time, we are seeing other business models that are developing quite quickly.

We're seeing quantum computers now moving into data centres being put alongside cloud computing servers, simply because there is now a need and a business model, independent of the qubit count, actually to run and have access to that as a service.

We're looking at a cliff face. And we don't know how fast it's changing, but I think in the next year, we'll be surprised at just how fast things have changed and how far the industry has moved."

Sparrow Quantum is focused on advancing light-matter interfaces for quantum technologies. The company is widely recognised as a leader in single-photon sources, demonstrating the world's highest light-matter coupling efficiency.

In May this year, the company raised 4.1 million to expand its team and increase its products and services.

Hafnium Labs supports chemicals, energy, and pharma companies by addressing a significant challenge in chemistry: swiftly obtaining dependable physical properties.

The company has developed a system for combining state-of-the-art predictive methods, such as quantum chemistry and AI, with experimental physical property data.

Called Q-propsit selects and qualifies all available data and applies quantum chemistry and molecular simulation fully automated, intelligent and transparently.

Use cases include drug discovery, process design, and troubleshooting production issues faster and creating truly predictive digital twins.

Molecular Quantum Solutions develops computational tools to accelerate research & development efforts by the pharma, biotech and chemical industry. Its tools use super- and quantum-computers with computational models and algorithms to calculate the properties of materials and chemicals quickly and efficiently.

Users can, for example, screen for new materials for batteries, green solvents, new drugs and biodegradable plastics instead of conducting costly experiments in the laboratory.

The company raised 600,000 in Pre-Seed funding in July this year.

NKT Photonics supplies high-performance fibre lasers and photonic crystal fibres such as supercontinuum white light lasers, low-noise fibre lasers, ultrafast lasers, and a wide range of speciality fibres.

They are used in quantum and nanotech, medical and life sciences, industrial applications, and aerospace and defence. In quantum tech, the hardware is used in quantum computing, sensing, and metrology.

Kvantify is a quantum and high-performance computing technology firm selling SaaS solutions based on cloud-native, quantum and high-performance computing, enabling businesses to access computer power without significant in-house investments. It helps clients find alternatives for all sorts of challenges in life sciences, financial services, logistics, and other functional areas.

For example, it has built solutions in pharmaceuticals and life sciences with built-in scaling capabilities and an HPC backend fully prepared to leverage quantum computing once the technology matures.

Since its founding in 2022, it has raised 2.5 million in funding and recently expanded its reach to the UK, where the team will work on using physical simulations and machine learning in drug discovery.

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Why Denmark is at the forefront of the quantum tech revolution - Tech.eu

BERKELEY, Calif., Oct. 31, 2023 Rigetti Computing, Inc., a pioneer in full-stack quantum-classical computing, today announced that it has appointed Thomas J. Iannotti as Chairman of the Board of Directors, effective immediately. Mr. Iannotti succeeds Cathy McCarthy in the role of Chair, with Ms. McCarthy continuing to serve as a member of the Board of Directors.

Mr. Iannotti currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Applied Materials, Inc., a role which he has held since 2017.

Mr. Iannotti joins Rigetti with extensive leadership experience in the technology and computing industries, most recently serving as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Services, for Hewlett-Packard Company, a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. Prior to that role, Mr. Iannotti held various executive positions at Hewlett-Packard, including Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Enterprise Business Group, Americas. He also worked at Digital Equipment Corporation, a vendor of computer systems and software, and at Compaq Computer Corporation, a supplier of personal computing systems, following its acquisition of Digital Equipment Corporation.

We are privileged to have Toms impressive technology sector and governance experience at Rigetti. We believe his vast background at some of the leading global computer companies will be an asset to Rigetti, and we look forward to his contributions to the Company and our board, says Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, Rigetti CEO.

Quantum computing has great promise to help tackle the worlds most challenging problems. I am thrilled to join Rigettis Board of Directors as Chairman, and to support the Company as it continues to advance superconducting quantum computing. From the Companys preeminent fabrication capabilities to its in-house quantum software and algorithm expertise, Rigetti is at the forefront of the field and I am excited to see the team achieve success and drive the technology forward, says Mr. Iannotti.

Id like to thank Cathy for her valuable contributions to our board during her time as chairperson. We are fortunate to benefit from Cathys executive leadership experience, and look forward to continuing to work alongside her as we pursue our mission of building the worlds most powerful computers to help solve humanitys most important and pressing problems, says Dr. Kulkarni.

About Rigetti

Rigetti is a pioneer in full-stack quantum computing. The Company has operated quantum computers over the cloud since 2017 and serves global enterprise, government, and research clients through its Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services platform. The Companys proprietary quantum-classical infrastructure provides high performance integration with public and private clouds for practical quantum computing. Rigetti has developed the industrys first multi-chip quantum processor for scalable quantum computing systems. The Company designs and manufactures its chips in-house at Fab-1, the industrys first dedicated and integrated quantum device manufacturing facility.

Source: Rigetti

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Rigetti Computing Appoints Thomas J. Iannotti as Chairman of the ... - HPCwire

Quantum Computing is arguably the biggest revolution in computing since the 1950s, according to Luke Ibbetson, Head of Research & Development at Vodafone. Thats why Vodafone and IBM have joined forces to explore this technology and the possibilities it brings.

While todays computers can collect, store and analyse data effectively, the promise of quantum computing takes processing power to the next level.

However, we wont see quantum computers necessarily replace traditional computers.

Its a way of computing that will complement classical computers to be able to solve problems that we cant solve today, explains Lory Thorpe, IBM Quantum.

Watch as Luke and Lory tell us more.

Starting our partnership with IBM last year, were working together to assess a diverse set of Vodafone use cases which may allow us to gain a quantum advantage and result in a better and more secure experience for our customers.

We see two main areas at the moment, says Luke. One around machine learning, one around optimisation.

In optimisation, quantum computers could help us solve very complex challenges which are difficult to solve by traditional means. For example, helping us decide where best to place our antennas and base stations or where to deploy broadband fibre cables to maximise the customer experience, drive better coverage and reduce costs.

In machine learning, quantum computers could help us to detect patterns in data, which we otherwise cannot observe; from anomaly detection in our networks, through to predictive allocation of computing resources which improves energy efficiency. We also use machine learning for fraud detection, helping keep customers and their data safe.

These are just initial areas we see benefitting from this technology. Another key field is in security.

While Quantum Computing holds immense potential for good, as they become more powerful, they could break industry standard encryptions and digital signature algorithms.

Cryptography is used everywhere. For the telecoms industry, it provides the building blocks that are used to secure networks, devices, and systems. Thats why were already working with IBM to build Quantum-Safe Cryptography that will protect traditional data and systems from future quantum computers.

Stay tuned for our next discussion with Luke and Lory when we will talk about the Quantum-Safe solutions were developing.

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Quantum computers can help us give the best experience to our ... - Vodafone

BUFFALO, N.Y. In the field of materials science, disorder gets a bad rap.

Disorder imperfections in a materials structure is typically something to be avoided, especially when synthesizing quantum materials whose exotic properties offer great potential for superconductors and ultrafast computers.

Yet every material has some amount of disorder, and, for some, disorder may explain why they exhibit their exciting properties in the first place.

University at Buffalo condensed matter physicist Herbert Fotso, PhD, is the principal investigator on a recent $225,967 grant from the Department of Energy to study quantum materials and how disorder affects their behavior.

We hope to fill a vacuum of information that can enable breakthroughs in materials science and even guide the synthesis of new materials, says Fotso, associate professor in the UB Department of Physics, within the College of Arts and Sciences.

In this collaborative project with Hanna Terletska, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Middle Tennessee State University, Fotso will create computational models to better understand the role of disorder in quantum materials that also have strong interactions between their electrons when driven away from equilibrium.

Very often, studies of quantum materials have considered strong interaction between electrons and disorder separately, Fotso says. We're proposing methods to study the interplay of interaction and disorder, evaluating what happens when both of these are important in a given material.

For example, metal-to-insulator transitions can be driven by both disorder and interaction. Some materials that should conduct electricity instead act as insulators due to some level of disorder. In other cases, a material may act as an insulator because the interactions between its electrons are so strong that they cannot move freely.

So what happens when these two elements are present in the same material? This interplay gives rise to a number of rather interesting and sometimes surprising behaviors, Fotso says.

Typically, scientists analyze a materials properties by increasing its charge concentration. However, this process often also creates some disorder in the material. In some cases, disorder may ultimately be more responsible for the observed properties than the increased charge concentration.

Fotso says precise, well-behaved materials are the foundation of materials science and the development of materials for quantum computing in particular, so scientists need an accurate understanding of why materials behave the way they do.

When you're running experiments, you want to be able to anticipate your results. Those expectations are guided by theory, and that theory must factor in the key parameters of the system, he says. If you don't have all of the key parameters, you will miss out on what exactly is happening in that material.

Fotso and Terletskas computational models will be released as open-source tools, allowing other research groups to take advantage and enable studies of quantum materials that were previously inaccessible.

Ideally, as a community, we do not want research groups across the world to be duplicating efforts because time is valuable, says Fotso, who joined UB in 2022. Increasingly, many of the problems that are relevant to future technologies will involve many different subfields of not only science, but even subfields within physics and within condensed matter physics.

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Imperfections may affect quantum materials' unusual behavior more ... - University at Buffalo