Quantum-Accelerated Recombinant Protein Drug Embedding Frameworks (QARPDEF)

根据小企业研究倡议(SBRI)，Innovate UK向总部位于牛津的中小企业Vorsus提供了资金支持，Vorsus是一家位于量子计算前沿的中小企业，专门从事量子应用开发。沃苏斯拥有一支经验丰富的物理学家、计算科学家、工程师和商界领袖团队，他们正在利用量子力学的力量来解决复杂的问题，在优化、量子模拟和量子机器学习方面释放出前所未有的可能性。Innovate UK的资金用于一项学习和研究，目的是利用量子计算的新兴力量，通过创造治疗未知疾病的新药来提高公众健康。它还旨在通过优化现有治疗的生产效率来减少政府医疗费用。重组蛋白药物(RPD)是使用基因工程技术创造的药物，由于其高精密度和靶向性，具有比小分子药物更高的优势。这些药物特别难发现和开发，但已经在改变一些慢性疾病的治疗方法，如糖尿病和一些癌症。Vorsus的目标是开发一种高影响力的量子RPD发现流水线工具包，该工具包将在第二代量子计算硬件上运行。根据可行性研究的结果，可能会向Vorsus分配更多资金，以开发该工具包的第一个版本，用于授权给基于研究的制药公司。

Innovate UK, under the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), has awarded financial support to Vorsus, an SME based in Oxford, which operates at the forefront of quantum computing, specialising in quantum-enabled application development. Vorsus has a team experienced physicists, computational scientists, engineers and business leaders who are harnessing the power of quantum mechanics to solve complex problems, unlocking unprecedented possibilities in optimisation, quantum simulations, and Quantum Machine Learning.The funding from Innovate UK is for a study and research into using the emerging power of quantum computing to enhance public health by creating new medicines to diseases with no known cure. It also aims to reduce government healthcare expenses by optimising the production efficiency of existing treatments.Recombinant protein drugs (RPDs) are medications created using genetic engineering techniques, offering advantages over small molecule drugs due to their high precision and targeted nature. These drugs are particularly difficult to discover and develop but are already transforming the treatment of some chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes and some cancers. Vorsus aims to develop a highly impactful quantum-enabled RPD discovery pipeline toolkit which will operate on second-generation quantum computing hardware.Based on the outcome of the feasibility study, further funds may be allocated to Vorsus to develop the first version of the toolkit for licensing to research-based pharmaceutical companies.