Slut med at prøve sig frem: Kvantesimulator skal finde medicin der virker

10.000 års arbejde på 3,5 minutter. Sådan lød facit, da en stor tech-gigant satte sit første bud på en kvantecomputer til at udregne et komplekst regnestykke. Et regnestykke, som ville tage de bedste computere, vi har til rådighed i dag, 10.000 år at løse.

Samme regnekraft skal nu skræddersys til at udvikle ny medicin, som i dag er en yderst tidskrævende og kompleks proces, og hvor en øget regnekraft kan vise sig at rumme store muligheder. Forskere fra Niels Bohr Institutet og Institut For Matematiske Fag på Københavns Universitet modtager nemlig i alt 108,6 millioner kroner af Novo Nordisk Fonden til at udvikle og bruge fremtidens såkaldte kvantesimulatorer til at udvikle medicin.     

"I dag prøver man sig i høj grad frem, når der skal udvikles ny medicin, fordi man med normale metoder ikke kan regne ud, hvordan proteiner og andre komplekse systemer reagerer på nye medicinske produkter. Her giver kvanteteknologierne os nye muligheder, da vi vil kunne udvikle specialiserede kvantesimulatorere, som er skræddersyede til at tackle disse processer," siger professor Peter Lodahl fra Niels Bohr Institutet på Københavns Universitet.

Peter Lodahl modtager 60 millioner kr. til sin forskning og skal lede det ene center, som hedder "Solid-state quantum simulators for biochemistry" (Solid-Q), som skal arbejde på at anvende og integrere to typer af kvantesimulerings-hardware for at lave kvantemekaniske beregninger af komplekse biomolekyler.

Det andet center hedder "Quantum for life" og ledes af professor Matthias Christandl, Institut for Matematiske Fag, Københavns Universitet. Projektet har til formål at udvikle matematiske algoritmer, der kan bruges til kvantesimulering af biomolekyler og dermed gøre det muligt at studere komplekse biokemiske processer.

"Centret skal udvikle og anvende skræddersyede kvantealgoritmer, hvilket giver mulighed for at åbne et nyt kapitel i ’computational life-sciences’ her i Danmark. Med det nye center er jeg glad for, at den kvantematematik, vi arbejder med, kan bruges til at løse vigtige problemstillinger omkring fundamentale biologiske processer," siger professor Matthias Christandl, som modtager 48,6 mio. kr. til sin forskning.

The team behind Solid-Q

“At very low temperatures, our artificial molecules are almost frozen, allowing us to observe and manipulate individual reactions in real time, one “atom" at a time."

Anasua Chatterjee (Assistant Professor, Center for Quantum Devices)

“As physicists we often view quantum dots as artificial atoms, but this is the first time that we will play chemist and perform artificial chemical reactions. I look forward to this opportunity."

Ferdinand Kuemmeth (Associate Professor, Center for Quantum Devices)

“Realization of new tunable engineered quantum simulators will have important implications for our understanding of advanced quantum materials, including interaction-driven emergent electronic phases."

Brian Møller Andersen (Associate Professor, NBI)

“This project is an exciting opportunity to explore how emerging quantum technological devices can open new windows into the intriguing physics of quantum reaction dynamics and energy transport, with an outlook toward tackling some of the most significant challenges facing society today."

Mark Rudner (Associate Professor, Center for Quantum Devices)

“Dissipation and transport of energy in complex molecules is important for many biological systems and with this project we get an exciting opportunity to deepen our understanding of these processes by performing simulations in small engineered quantum systems"

Thomas Sand Jespersen  (Associate Professor, Center for Quantum Devices)

“Computational chemistry transformed our understanding of molecular systems in the twentieth century, with this project we explore how quantum simulators can deliver chemical insight for the twenty-first." 

Gemma C. Solomon (Professor, Nano-Science Center and Department of Chemistry)

“With Solid-Q we challenge ourselves to bring our highly refined quantum devices into the context of chemical reactions and biochemistry. We greatly appreciate that the Novo Nordisk Foundation has given us the opportunity to explore this new direction.“ 

Jesper Nygård  (Professor, Center for Quantum Devices)

“Adding artificial vibrational modes to quantum dot arrays will allow us to emulate real molecules alongside with some of their chemical functionality. If this works out, these solid state simulators provide a powerful tool for prediction and understanding complex  non-linear quantum systems."

Jens Paaske  (Associate Professor, Center for Quantum Devices)

“With quantum simulators we have the possibility of a major breakthrough in our ability to simulate quantum dynamics. With Solid-Q we want to turn this dream into reality."

Anders S. Sørensen (Professor, Center for Hybrid Quantum Networks)

“Photonics offers exciting prospects of scaling up available quantum hardware to realize quantum simulators. Within Solid-Q we will follow that pathway based on our newly developed deterministic single-photon and multi-photon-entanglement source"

Peter Lodahl (Professor, Center for Hybrid Quantum Networks)

“Solid-Q will enable us to simulate critical biochemical processes across a range of energy scales; an overwhelming challenge for conventional computers."

Jacques Carolan (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow,  Center for Hybrid Quantum Networks)