Two Centers of Excellence receives a large grant for the development of quantum simulators

One of quantum technology’s biggest investments, the quantum computer, is expected to be able to solve complex problems in a wide range of disciplines, including medicine, where the quantum computer’s enormous power must identify medicines that work at a much faster rate than today. Two Centers of Excellence, Hy-Q and QDev at the University of Copenhagen, recently received a large grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Challenge Program to collaborate on the development of specialized quantum computers for the benefit of the medicine of the future.

The DNRF Centers of Excellence Hy-Q and QDev at the University of Copenhagen have just received DKK 60 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Challenge Program for the development of specialized quantum computers for the benefit of the medicine of the future. With the grant, the two centers will collaborate to start a new interdisciplinary center that focuses on developing so-called quantum simulators, which will make it faster to detect drugs that work.

“Today, people are trying very hard to develop new medicines, because with normal methods it is not possible to calculate how proteins and other complex systems react to new medical products. Here, quantum technologies give us new opportunities, as we will be able to develop specialized quantum simulators that are tailored to tackle these processes,” said Professor Lodahl.

The new center is called “Solid-state quantum simulators for biochemistry” (Solid-Q) and will work on using and integrating two types of quantum simulation hardware to make quantum mechanical calculations of complex biomolecules.

The team behind Solid-Q includes Professor and head of center at Hy-Q Peter Lodahl as well as Assistant Professor Anasua Chatterjee, Associate Professor Ferdinand Kuemmeth, Associate Professor Mark Rudner, Associate Professor Thomas Sand Jespersen, Associate Professor Jens Paaske, and Professor Jesper Nygård from QDev. In addition, the team consists of Professor Gemma C. Solomon from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, and Associate Professor Brian Møller Andersen from the Niels Bohr Institute.

You can read more about Solid-Q in a press release from the University of Copenhagen here