Case study: Moderna and IBM use quantum computing to model mRNA structure

In a simulation of protein secondary structures, IBM® and Moderna achieve one of the largest and most advanced variational executions ever realized on quantum hardware.

A new case study explores how IBM Quantum® and Moderna recently demonstrated the use of quantum simulation to predict the secondary protein structure of a 60 nucleotide-long mRNA sequence, the longest nucleotide folding pattern ever simulated on a quantum computer. Understanding how proteins fold from a given nucleotide sequence is crucial for creating effective mRNA vaccines. Using 80 qubits of an IBM Quantum Heron chip, the team employed CVaR-based VQA—a quantum optimization algorithm modeled after financial risk assessment techniques—to achieve the largest demonstration of this algorithm’s utility to date.

This study is a powerful example of the progress the quantum community is making toward quantum advantage — the point at which quantum computers are shown to be more efficient, more accurate, or cheaper than classical computers for a particular task. As we explore different applications, one use-case at a time, IBM Quantum partners and clients are taking essential steps in our journey of bringing useful quantum computing to the world. Additional examples of this work can be found on our case studies page here.