Toward a Future Where We Can “Know in an Instant” with Quantum Computers
Quantum computers are expected to enable extraordinarily fast computation and ultimately secure cryptographic communication that cannot be broken. We aim to apply this transformative technology to the life sciences.
Why Genetic Information?
It is widely considered that information exhibiting quantum interference is particularly well suited for quantum computing. In our research, we demonstrated in a 2010 experiment that data obtained from our Biomolecular Sequencer, which analyzes biological information at the molecular level, contain signatures consistent with quantum interference. Among all types of human information, the ones that demand the highest level of confidentiality and ultra-fast analysis are our genetic information and the information of cancer antigen peptides, which is essential for cancer treatment. These are precisely the kinds of data produced by the Biomolecular Sequencer. We believe that quantum computers are ideally suited to handle information with such quantum characteristics, and that Biomolecular Sequencer data could become a “killer app”—a decisive use case—for quantum computing.
Aiming for “Future Healthcare”
With a simple blood draw, you can instantly obtain genetic testing results—along with information on the most suitable therapeutic drugs. To help realize this future, we are currently working with collaborators to build new quantum-computing-based analytical methods from the ground up, and to validate them using real quantum computers.
