Quantum computing company Xanadu and researchers at the University of Alberta are joining forces to find better ways to treat cancer using quantum computers.
The team is building software to quickly test and predict which compounds will make the best cancer-fighting drugs. Led by Xanadu's algorithms team and U of A chemistry professor Dr. Alex Brown, the focus is on a special treatment called photodynamic therapy (PDT). Instead of using harsh chemicals that can make patients sick like traditional chemotherapy, PDT uses special light-activated compounds called photosensitizers.
When these compounds are placed in the body and hit with a specific colour of laser light, they "wake up" and destroy tumour cells while leaving nearby healthy cells safe and sound.
While PDT sounds like a dream treatment, creating the right light-activated compounds is extremely hard. Performing physical lab experiments to test new compounds is slow and expensive, and standard supercomputers as well as classical algorithms can't always provide the required details for simulating how light interacts with molecules for PDT.
That's where quantum computing comes in. Quantum computers process information using the rules of atomic physics so they can model complex molecules far better than standard computers ever could.
"By combining Xanadu's quantum expertise with our experience in modelling photodynamic therapy, we're excited to explore how quantum computing could provide new tools for designing more effective treatments," says Brown.
The work from this partnership has the potential to drastically speed up the time it takes to develop safer, more precise cancer treatments for patients everywhere.
"Current methodologies for developing effective photosensitizers are hampered by a variety of hurdles," says Dr. Christian Weedbrook, founder and CEO of Xanadu. "By leveraging early fault-tolerant quantum computers to model critical light-matter interactions within photosensitizers, we are positioning quantum computing as a highly competitive method for accelerating photodynamic drug discovery."
