Covid19 may be a boon for quantum computing
The world is currently grappling with the spread of coronavirus. A number of promising initiatives that aim to aid in the fight are being announced. These enlist supercomputers, AI algorithms, and scientific expertise. Computing power is increasing and more relevant data is being gathered and analyzed with better models. This may produce better insights into how to limit the spread of pandemics in the future as well as design and develop effective treatments and vaccines.
A pandemic like COVID-19 intensifies interest in new computational innovations like quantum computing. The healthcare and life sciences industry is one of the sectors earmarked to record early gains from quantum computers. Currently, high-performance computing (HPC) is used to run very large numbers of calculations in epidemiology, bioinformatics, and molecular modeling. Researchers rely on HPC to perform modeling of molecular structures, mapping of the interactions between a drug and its target, and simulations of the drug’s metabolism, distribution, and interactions in the wider human system. Normally, these experiments would take years to complete if manually done, or months using slower traditional computing platforms. Computational tools are critical elements of drug discovery and development. New pharmaceutical breakthroughs and new medicines hinge on understanding the structure of proteins or molecular behavior. AI and hybrid quantum-classical approaches are promising to reduce time and cost significantly, but the first drugs are yet to make it through the rigorous clinical trials.
The need to develop and distribute drugs faster, drug discovery, and clinical trial enhancements are some of the key motivations for experimenting with quantum computing. But here is a challenge; the HPC environment will soon run out of capabilities as the miniaturization of electronics saturates meaning that we won't be able to solve these problems with the HPC infrastructure that we have today. At this point, one can then perhaps visualize a direct connection between using HPC and quantum computing capabilities that exist in the cloud.
When a pandemic like COVID-19 arises there is an urgent need to quickly identify the pattern of the virus, work faster to select compounds to be used as drug candidates, put together a vaccine, or determine ways by which we can slow the transmission. Quantum computers can simulate chemical reactions at the molecular level and quickly narrow down possible candidates for drugs and vaccines. Whilst their capabilities are still limited, a lot of progress is being made every day and that gives hope.
Generally, the increased accessibility of cloud-based quantum computing technology and investments being made by governments worldwide seem likely to sustain interest in the technology. Further, the relatively new fusion of AI and quantum computing may assist in preventing and mitigating future pandemics. While some companies will merge, get acquired, or worse still go extinct, I foresee COVID19 buttressing near-term investments in quantum infrastructure and research.
Quantum computers may start to provide quantum advantage within the next ten years thereby solving real-world problems faster than supercomputers (HPC) and cloud computing. One can only be optimistic that this fledgling technology will be able to help in a meaningful way when the world faces another pandemic. It is indeed time for society to plunge in and try new things.
