Michelle ThompsonFujitsu and the research center RIKEN present AI drug discovery technology that can anticipate protein changes after announcing a new quantum computer.
Fujitsu and the research organization RIKEN declare that they have created an AI drug discovery tool that uses generative AI to anticipate protein structure changes from electron microscope pictures.
The discovery, which might help businesses optimize their digital transformation initiatives, comes shortly after both companies announced the successful development of Japan’s second quantum computer as part of global research efforts to make technology more usable.
The Fujitsu AI Platform, which enables users to quickly try out cutting-edge technologies, will include Fujitsu’s protein structural change prediction technology as an AI innovation component starting today (10th October 2023) and will be made available to users.
Organizations are stepping up their research into quantum supercomputers
The launch combines the 40 qubit Fujitsu quantum computer simulators with the 64 qubit superconducting quantum computer, which was recently built. Both enterprises want to provide the new platform to organizations who do collaborative research with them in business and academia.
According to Reuters, Shintaro Sato, head of Fujitsu’s Quantum Laboratory, believes that this is only sort of a first or second step and that there is still much work to be done.
Additionally, firms in important industries like banking and drug development will be able to access resources for quantum computing and quantum simulation thanks to Fujitsu and RIKEN. Fujitsu’s long-term goal is to develop AI-based software that can automatically choose from a variety of computer resources and algorithms to provide clients with the best possible solutions to their problems.
In addition to advancing the hunt for real-world hybrid quantum applications in a variety of disciplines, including materials, finance, and drug development, this cooperation intends to speed up joint research using the new hybrid platform with diverse enterprises, universities, and research institutes.
Many other businesses, such as IBM and NVIDIA, are also researching quantum computing techniques, with some of them dedicated to using AI to find healthcare solutions. In fact, IBM and Moderna collaborated in a similar way to examine how generative AI and quantum computing might be used to create future mRNA treatments.
Research on generative AI to provide healthcare solutions
Both businesses are looking on generative AI remedies for the healthcare industry. They created generative AI technology as part of a collaboration that began in May 2022, and it accurately predicts the many conformations of a target protein and their potential proportions from a huge number of projection images obtained by electron microscopy.
With the aim of creating next-generation IT drug discovery technology that drastically cuts development time and expense, both businesses have now produced AI drug discovery technology based on these two technologies that can predict structural changes of a protein in a wide range.
The approach promises to speed up the design of medications that attach to target proteins, such as those found in bacteria and viruses, by enabling accurate acquisition of protein conformations and modifications based on experimental data in more than 10 times less time than standard procedures.
Additionally, they will seek to make use of AI drug discovery technology as one of the key tools for analyzing complexes between target proteins and antibodies and for accurately and quickly anticipating structural changes in molecules. The objective is to find ground-breaking medical treatments that could potentially change patients’ lives while also increasing practitioner productivity.
