Deploying Quantum Computers in Service to Combat Coronavirus Pandemic

In the fight against coronavirus outbreak, quantum computing has joined the force of disruptive technologies at the service to better pandemic control. The world's mightiest supercomputer, IBM Summit is being deployed by researchers to identify chemical compounds that could contribute to the fight against coronavirus. Researchers were afforded emergency computation time on the machine, which performs analysis at an unrivaled pace. Summit reportedly generated results within 1-2 days, as opposed to the months it would have taken standard computing systems to produce equivalent results. To date, the quantum computer has helped researchers identify 77 small-molecule compounds worth investigating further as institutions around the world scramble to develop a coronavirus cure.

Summit boasts a maximum processing power of 200 petaflops, thanks to 4,608 server nodes, each equipped with two IBM POWER9 CPUs and six Nvidia Tensorcore V100 GPUs. The computer-simulated thousands of compounds in search of those most likely to bind to the coronavirus protein that allows the virus to infect host cells.

Jeremy Smith, Director of the ORNL Center for Molecular Biophysics, was enthusiastic about the progress made with the help of IBM's supercomputer, but also sought to temper expectations.

"Our results don't mean that we have found a cure or treatment for the coronavirus," he said. "We are very hopeful, though, that our computational finding will both inform future studies and provide a framework that experimentalists will use to further investigate these compounds. Only then will we know whether any of them exhibit characteristics needed to migrate this virus."

Meanwhile, IBM chief Ginni Rometty said the company's technical leaders have been asked: "to consider all options to help government and health agencies monitor and manage the outbreak."

"IBM Clinical Development system has been made available – without charge – to national health agencies to reduce the time and cost of clinical trials by providing data and analysis from web-enabled devices. And our cognitive Operational Risk Insight tool has been made available to not-for-profit organizations," she added.

Apart from IBM, Burnaby, B.C.-based D-Wave Systems says it's providing free access to its Leap hybrid quantum cloud service to anyone who's working on responses to the coronavirus outbreak. D-Wave's partners and customers are providing expertise to help researchers use quantum tools to study the virus and how to stop it.

The companies joining the quantum fray alongside D-Wave include Volkswagen, Kyocera, NEC Solution Innovators, Denso, Cineca, Forschungszentrum Jülich, MDR/Cliffhanger, Menten AI, OTI Lumionics, QAR Lab at LMU Munich, Sigma-i and Tohoku University.

"We want to expand the computational capabilities to experts across disciplines, verticals, and geographies, and bring the community's deep quantum knowledge to bear on the complex and dynamic COVID-19 situation," D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz said.

D-Wave uses an approach known as quantum annealing, which works well for simulating quantum phenomena and optimizing network systems.

The company's hybrid quantum-classical cloud service could conceivably help researchers simulate molecular interactions between coronavirus and its target cells, or simulate the spread of the COVID-19 disease in complex settings. It could also help planners optimize supply chains and hospital logistics.

"Computing technology has long contributed to the development of science and industry," said Koji Arima, Denso's president, and CEO. "Quantum computing now has the potential to further this development, and we were one of the first to start research in this field in the auto industry. We are honored to join the [COVID-19] project, which will leverage this experience, mobilize our global expertise and activate our spirit of collaboration."

D-Wave's quantum consortium is only one of the groupings using advanced computing technologies to address the coronavirus crisis.