Researchers from Penn State College of Engineering are aiming to speed COVID-19 drug discovery with quantum machine learning, a field that combines machine learning and quantum physics.
The researchers noted that the existing drug-discovery pipeline can take five to ten years from initial idea to market approval, and could cost billions of dollars. The team believes that quantum machine learning approach could be faster and more economical than current methods used for drug discovery.
“Discovering any new drug that can cure a disease is like finding a needle in a haystack,” said Swaroop Ghosh, the Joseph R. and Janice M. Monkowski Career Development Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering.
“High-performance computing such as supercomputers and artificial intelligence can help accelerate this process by screening billions of chemical compounds quickly to find relevant drug candidates.”
Using quantum machine learning, the research team will seek to uncover new ways to discover and develop disease treatments.
Source: healthitanalytics.com