<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, those patterns are hidden inside data sets so large that they overwhelm classical solvers. Infleqtion uses the quantum computer to find correlations in the data that can reduce the size of the computation. \u201cThen we hand the reduced problem back to the classical solver,\u201d Teague says. \u201cI\u2019m basically trying to use the best of my quantum and my classical resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nottingham-based team, meanwhile, is using quantum computing to nail down a drug candidate that can cure myotonic dystrophy, the most common adult-onset form of muscular dystrophy. One member of the team, David Brook, played a role in identifying the gene behind this condition in 1992. Over 30 years later, Brook, Hirst, and the others in their group\u2014which includes QuEra, a Boston company developing a quantum computer based on neutral atoms\u2014has now quantum-computed a way in which drugs can form chemical bonds with the protein that brings on the disease, blocking the mechanism that causes the problem.<\/p>\n
The entrants\u2019 confidence might be high, but Shihan Sajeed\u2019s is much lower. Sajeed, a quantum computing entrepreneur based in Waterloo, Ontario, is program director for Q4Bio. He believes the error-prone quantum machines the researchers must work with are unlikely to deliver on all the grand prize criteria. \u201cIt is very difficult to achieve something with a noisy quantum computer that a classical machine can\u2019t do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
That said, he has been surprised by the progress. \u201cWhen we started the program, people didn\u2019t know about any use cases where quantum can definitely impact biology,\u201d he says. But the teams have found promising applications, he adds: \u201cWe now know the fields where quantum can matter.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the developments in \u201chybrid quantum-classical\u201d processing that the entrants are using are \u201ctransformational,\u201d Sajeed reckons.<\/p>\n
Will it be enough to make him part with Wellcome Leap\u2019s money? That\u2019s down to a judging panel, whose members\u2019 identities are a closely guarded secret to ensure that no one tailors their presentation to a particular kind of approach. But we won\u2019t know the outcome for a while; the winner, or winners, will be announced in mid-April.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If it does turn out that there are no winners, Sajeed has some words of comfort for the competitors. The goal has always been about running a useful algorithm on a machine that exists today, he points out; missing the mark doesn\u2019t mean your algorithm won\u2019t be useful on a future quantum computer. \u201cIt just means the machine you need doesn\u2019t exist yet.\u201d