How IBM and Moderna's partnership could lead to an explosion in drug development
IBM may need to tweak its moniker in light of recent news, because its recent work in quantum computing, in partnership with Moderna, could lead to potentially explosive breakthroughs in the medical field.
The companies' recently published research showed 'promise' using a combination of both quantum and classical computers to 'predict mRNA secondary structures,' which may make it easier to develop and design new mRNA-based medicines and treatments. Until now, this wasn't possible due to the amount of computing power needed to calculate potential complex interactions at a molecular level. But quantum computing, which is being used in similar ways such as materials design, is giving scientists the extra computational firepower they need to do it.
The results? More, better drugs, developed on much shorter time frames.
'One of the biggest challenges when identifying the best candidates for mRNA-based medicines is determining how they will instruct mRNA to fold in the body—a challenging optimization problem that gets harder and harder to solve for larger mRNA sequences, ultimately pushing the limits of even the most advanced classical computers,' says Sarah Sheldon, Senior Manager of Applied Quantum Science at IBM. 'By applying an approach that leverages the strengths of both quantum and classical computing, the Moderna and IBM team has set a new record in the scale of mRNA structure problems that quantum computers are able to solve.'
In effect, utilizing quantum computers on a large scale 'could transform life sciences,' she says.
'Quantum computing holds the promise to help streamline the design of new medicines, while reducing the time and cost scales of bringing new therapies to market,' explains Sheldon. 'As quantum computers continue to expand their computational power and new algorithms emerge, they could accelerate drug discovery and enable more precise and effective medicines.'
While that's obviously exciting news, it's worth noting that some in the tech field have tried to throw cold water on the hubbub surrounding quantum computing. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, for instance, said earlier this year that he thought quantum computers were still decades away—a notion that was rejected by others in the space. Some companies already do have commercially available quantum computers on the market, and others are working on their own, such as IBM.
One thing we do know, at this point, is that the promise of quantum computing, when pointed at existing research bottlenecks, has many researchers excited.
'We're already seeing promising early results,' says Sheldon. 'We expect to make meaningful progress with our partners across global industries to scale algorithms capable of running increasingly more complex quantum circuits with greater accuracy—a critical step toward realizing practical and industry-relevant applications in fields such as life sciences, materials, chemistry, optimization, and more.'
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Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times A Chinese Ministry of Commerce official seemed to reject that on Friday, saying that the United States had 'taken the initiative' to approve the H20 sales. China believes the U.S. should continue to remove its trade and economic restrictions, the official said. A person familiar with the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said that the H20 chip was not specifically discussed in meetings between Chinese and American officials in Geneva and London this spring. But the reversal was part of a more recent cadence of warmer actions the United States and China have taken toward each other. For instance, Beijing agreed in recent weeks to block the export of several chemicals used to make fentanyl, an issue Mr. Trump has been concerned about. Recent events have underscored the influence that China has over the U.S. economy. 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Bush administration, said the fact that the United States was now negotiating over what were supposed to be security restrictions was 'a significant accomplishment for the Chinese.' 'They've been after this for decades, and now they've succeeded,' he said. 'I assume the Chinese are going to demand more concessions on export controls in return for whatever we want next.' Mr. Trump was the first to harness the power of U.S. export controls, by targeting Chinese tech giant Huawei and putting global restrictions on American technology in his first term. But the Biden administration expanded those rules. Concerned that China's growing A.I. capacity would advance its military, Biden officials cracked down on exports of Nvidia chips, seeing them as the most effective choke point over Chinese A.I. capabilities. Image President Trump and Mr. Huang at the White House in April. Mr. Huang argues that blocking U.S. technology from China has created more urgency for China to develop its own technology. Credit... Pete Marovich for The New York Times Since then, when Chinese officials raised their objections to U.S. technology controls in meetings, U.S. officials had responded by insisting that the measures were national security matters and not up for debate. But in the meeting in Geneva in May, China finally had a powerful counterargument. Beijing insisted that its minerals and magnets, some of which go to fighter jets, drones and weaponry, were a 'dual-use' technology that could be used for the military as well as civilian industries, just like A.I. and chips. It demanded reciprocity: If the United States wanted a steady flow of rare earths, Washington should also be ready to lessen its technology controls. It's not clear exactly what the United States agreed to in Geneva: The agreement has never been made public. But when the United States put out an unrelated export control announcement the day after the Geneva summit concluded, China responded angrily, saying the statement 'undermined the consensus' the countries had reached. In a notice on May 13, the Commerce Department said that using Huawei's A.I. chips 'anywhere in the world' was an export control violation. The notice was directed at other nations considering purchasing Huawei chips, people familiar with the move said, not the Chinese. The announcement appeared to take other parts of the Trump administration by surprise, and within hours, the language in the release was walked back, though no policy changes were made. Mr. Bessent and Jamieson Greer, the trade representative, expressed concerns that such moves could damage trade talks with China, people familiar with the incident said. China once again clamped down on rare earth exports. Trying to find its own leverage, the United States responded by restricting exports of semiconductor design software, airplane parts and ethane. The two sides restored their truce in a meeting in London in June. Since then, trade in those products has restarted. But U.S. companies complain that Chinese licenses for rare earth magnets are limited to six months, and that the Chinese government is requesting proprietary information to obtain those shipments. Beijing has also continued to build out its export controls. On June 15, the day after Nvidia said it would be permitted to sell the H20 in China, Chinese officials announced new restrictions on exports of battery technology. The United States has been trying to decrease its dependence on China for rare earths, but there is no quick solution. China has a powerful hold over numerous industries, ranging from pharmaceuticals to solar panels to drones. 'The challenge for the Trump administration is, how do they get out of this quagmire?' said Jimmy Goodrich, a senior adviser for technology analysis to the RAND Corporation. 'It appears some competitive U.S. actions are now at the whims of Beijing, who can now determine the time, place and nature of U.S. tech and trade policy toward China.' Deal makers in the White House The change in the relationship with China has coincided with a separate shift in the administration, in which officials who favor technology controls on China have been sidelined in favor of those who support the tech industry's ambitions to sell abroad. Mr. Lutnick and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state who has long been an ardent China critic, have hewed closely to the position of the president, who is more of a deal maker than a national security hawk. And hawkish members of the National Security Council have been fired in recent months, after being accused of insufficient loyalty. Their absence has paved the way for officials like David Sacks, the White House A.I. czar, who has criticized export controls, to push for tech companies to have freer rein. Nvidia's chief executive, Jensen Huang, has gone on a lobbying blitz in Washington, pushing politicians to open China for A.I. chip sales. Mr. Huang has contended that blocking U.S. technology from China has backfired by creating more urgency for China to develop its own technology. He has argued that the Chinese military won't use Nvidia chips, and pushed back against Washington's consensus that China is an adversary, describing it a 'competitor' but 'not our enemy.' Image The change in the U.S. relationship with China has coincided with a separate shift in the Trump administration, in which officials who favor technology controls on China have been sidelined. Credit... Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Others have challenged those assertions, pointing to past research that the Chinese military has placed orders for Nvidia chips. Scientific papers published earlier this year also showed Chinese researchers with ties to military universities and a top nuclear weapons lab using Nvidia chips for general research. Mr. Rizzo, the Nvidia spokesman, said in a statement that 'non-military papers describing new and beneficial ways to use U.S. technology promote America.' In a letter on Friday, John Moolenaar, the Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on China, said the H20 chip had aided the rise of the Chinese A.I. model DeepSeek and would help China develop A.I. models to compete with American ones. These arguments do not appear to have persuaded the president. In an Oval Office meeting with Mr. Huang in July, Mr. Trump agreed with Nvidia that keeping American chips out of China would only help Huawei, and decided to reverse the H20 ban. People familiar with Mr. Trump's views say he has always viewed export controls more transactionally. In his first term, Mr. Trump agreed to roll back U.S. restrictions on ZTE at the urging of Mr. Xi. In this term, Mr. Trump and his advisers have begun using America's control over A.I. chips as a source of leverage in negotiations with governments from the Middle East to Asia. With China, Mr. Trump has his own longstanding aspirations. He believes that U.S. businesses have been getting ripped off for decades, and that he can be the one to fix it, particularly if he negotiates directly with Mr. Xi. His advisers have begun strategizing toward a more substantial trade negotiation with China focused on market opening, as well as the potential visit this fall.
