A team from Cleveland Clinic, Japan’s RIKEN, and IBM has been named a finalist for the 2026 ACM Gordon Bell Prize. The team used quantum and classical computers together to model a protein containing 12,635 atoms, the largest biologically meaningful molecule the partners say has been simulated with quantum computers.
The work began with a question in drug discovery: how can scientists calculate the way atoms move and the energies that hold a molecule together? Quantum computers can help with parts of that problem, while powerful classical computers can assemble the results.
The researchers ran quantum calculations on IBM Quantum Heron processors at Cleveland Clinic and RIKEN. Fugaku and Miyabi-G supercomputers helped combine the pieces into a fuller picture of the protein complexes.
The team also tested an automated workflow on RIKEN’s ROQUO system, reducing manual transfers between machines. Better molecular calculations could eventually help researchers predict how medicines interact with protein targets, although the work remains a research advance rather than a finished treatment.
