Quantum computing in the pharmaceutical industry, 14 March, Cambridge
KTN, in partnership with the Newton Gateway to Mathematics, is hosting a workshop on the potential of quantum computing in the pharmaceutical sector.
The workshop, on 14 March in Cambridge, will bring together experts in quantum computing, the pharmaceutical industry and (classical) computational methods to discuss if the market growth potential in this sector is realistic and explore other potential applications in the pharmaceutical industry.
The past two years have seen rapid advances in building scalable quantum computers.  It is now widely expected that a device that cannot be simulated by any classical computer (so-called ‘quantum computational supremacy’) will emerge in 2019.  The prospect of a relatively near-term device capable of a quantum advantage has sparked a huge amount of excitement in academia, industry and government funding.
A recent report from Boston Consulting Group estimates that the market potential of quantum computing in pharmaceuticals could be $15B Р$30B within 10 years.  The central mechanism being the accurate simulation of proteins in order to find binding sites for new drugs and the impact this has on higher success rates at later stage trials.
Funding of £315m has recently been announced by the UK Government to continue the quantum technology commercialisation programme for a further five years, building on the £270m announced in 2015 for the initial five years.  The next phase of the programme includes £75 for a National Quantum Computing Centre and further support for quantum computing will be available via collaborative R&D competitions currently being scoped.
Following on from the successful meeting, Algorithms and Software for Quantum Computers, this workshop is an ideal opportunity to consider current and future needs in drug design and computational chemistry to exploit these new opportunities.
The workshop will cover the quantum computing landscape, simulation state-of-the-art on classical architectures, the drug discovery pipeline and the UK funding landscape for quantum.
To register for a free place at the workshop, click here.