Pennsylvania Company’s Quantum Breakthrough Hopes To Enhance Drug Discovery & Molecular Design

Exclusive Club

The growth trend of startups utilizing quantum mechanics to improve outcomes in such areas as developing software platforms for protein design, drug discovery and computational modelling and algorithms to work out the properties of chemicals and materials is a sign that quantum computing (QC) and quantum information science (QIS) are here to stay.

This exclusive club (which will not be so exclusive as more companies realize what they’re onto) includes startups like ApexQubit, Menten, Molecular Quantum Solutions (MQS), POLARISqb, and ProteinQure. For sure, these companies — along with others that follow — are going to make a big impression on the health industry.

Just like the vanguard startups mentioned, QuantumBio Inc — a software and services company that provides innovative technical solutions to the life sciences leveraging the precision of quantum mechanical approaches to aid the pharmaceutical, biotech and academia — has an important role to play.

QuantumBio Inc

Founded by Lance M. Westerhoff and Walt Lovenberg way back in 2002, the State College area-based company — coincidentally home to the University Park campus of the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State)— has some exciting stuff going on in the disciplines of structural biology and drug R&D.

FAST AND ACCURATE SOFTWARE FOR DRUG DISCOVERY AND MOLECULAR DESIGN

— QuantumBio Inc

All this lies behind QuantumBio’s products, comprising The DivCon Discovery Suite, which “implements fast, high-performance, quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical algorithms in an easy-to-use approach to accelerate drug discovery and development.”

Computer-Aided Drug Design Tools that can “accurately reveal protein-ligand binding states and accelerate your workflow”, as well as XModeScore and the DivCon Plugin, reliable structural biology tools.

Speaking earlier this year on QuantumBio’s published results on the impact of its X-ray refinement toolkit, Dr. Lance Westerhoff said:

“By utilizing our tools, we have demonstrated that improved structures yield improved predictions along with a better understanding of the critical interactions enabling protein: ligand binding. In fact, we have shown that these robust tools fuel a computational chemistry-structural biology feedback loop, creating more effective avenues for structure-based drug discovery.”

QuantumBio’s management team consists of the company’s co-founders acting CEO Walt Lovenberg and president and general manager Lance M. Westerhoff.

Lovenberg, who received a Ph.D. from George Washington University, is the author or co-author of over 300 scientific publications and has prior experience as a director of several private biotechnology companies spanning four decades.

With a demonstrated history of working in the structure-based drug discovery software industry, Lance M. Westerhoff obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from Penn State University.

To help achieve its long-term objectives, QuantumBio is developing several key scientific collaborations with other software vendors in order to better address the needs of its customers. These include the Chemical Computing Group (CCG), a leading developer and provider of molecular modelling, simulations and ML software to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, the Python-based Hierarchical ENvironment for Integrated Xtallography platform Phenix platform, one of the most popular x-ray crystallography platforms available, Global Phasing, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Prepare to come across this company a lot more in the future.

If you found this article to be informative, you can explore more current quantum news here, exclusives, interviews, and podcasts.