Briefs · Frontier Science
Quantum Computers Model a 12,635-Atom Protein
Quantum computing just grew up. It modelled a molecule that matters.
Scientists at IBM, Cleveland Clinic and RIKEN simulated protein complexes of up to 12,635 atoms. They are the largest biologically meaningful molecules yet simulated with quantum hardware.
The trick was teamwork. Classical computers broke the protein complexes into fragments. IBM’s 156-qubit Heron processors calculated the quantum behaviour of the pieces. Two supercomputers, Fugaku and Miyabi-G, helped reassemble the results.
The scale is striking. The proteins were roughly 40 times larger than the same method could handle six months earlier. Accuracy in a key step improved by up to 210 times.
The work is not a shortcut, but rather a sharper lens. Drug discovery hinges on how a candidate binds to a protein. That problem is hard, expensive, and slow.
No drug was discovered here. Yet proteins, processors and patience have finally met at a scale biology can use.
Read the original at IBM Newsroom
Summary in our own words. The original belongs to its publisher.