Insider Brief
- Pasqal and True Nexus have used Pasqal’s neutral-atom quantum technology to encode selected protein structures linked to the molecular mechanisms behind protein gelation.
- The collaboration combines AI-driven protein analysis with quantum computing to study the relationship between protein structure and functionality.
- The companies said the work could support future applications in food and biotechnology, with the project also tied to Saudi Arabia’s broader plans for applied quantum technology.
PRESS RELEASE – Pasqal (Nasdaq: PSQL), a global provider of neutral-atom quantum computers, and True Nexus, a computational intelligence company focused on making protein functionality programmable for real-world food applications, today announced a major milestone in their collaboration: the successful use of Pasqal’s neutral-atom quantum technology to encode selected protein structures relevant to the molecular mechanisms that drive protein gelation — the process that turns liquids into gels and gives foods their structure and texture.
The milestone marks a first, decisive step toward making protein functionality, one of the most valuable and least understood properties in the global food and biotech economy, computationally accessible and, ultimately, programmable.
Proteins are the foundation of the modern food economy, and one of its greatest unsolved problems. Their commercial value rests not on their sequence but on their functionality: how they gel, bind, foam and give texture. For decades, that functionality has resisted design. Industry could read a protein’s sequence, yet the deeper chemistry that determines how a protein behaves under real-world conditions remained extremely difficult to model computationally — discoverable only through slow, costly trial and error at the bench. It is why, despite twenty years of effort and billions in investment, plant proteins have not consistently matched animal proteins across key functionalities associated with gelatin, dairy, egg and meat applications, leaving an entire industry to build on a layer it could not see.
True Nexus and Pasqal are now bridging that gap. By combining AI-driven protein intelligence with Pasqal’s neutral-atom quantum technology, the collaboration is laying the foundation to understand how proteins form gels — and how that behavior could ultimately be controlled. The work aims to uncover the link between protein structure and function, opening new possibilities for the design of new, better-performing proteins. The prize is a market of global scale: protein demand is projected to approach USD 1 trillion by 2030, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, with plant-based, halal and regionally grown sources still largely untapped for want of a design tool.
“Encoding real protein structures on our neutral-atom processors shows how quantum can move from the lab toward the problems that matter to industry and to nations,” said Mark Armstrong, CCO EMEA of Pasqal. “Protein functionality is exactly the kind of high-value, classically hard challenge neutral-atom technology is built for.”
A Flagship for the Kingdom’s Quantum Ambition
For the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the milestone is a flagship demonstration of applied quantum technology with national significance. Delivered through MCIT (Ministry of Communications and Information Technology), it shows how the Kingdom could turn quantum from a research capability into a real industrial engine. Beyond advancing food security and a central position in the future protein economy, it points to a broader ambition: establishing Saudi Arabia as a leader in AI and quantum applied to life sciences and biotechnology, in direct support of Vision 2030.
The same approach is designed to reach well beyond food. The computational engine at the heart of the collaboration could be directed at other strategic sectors — from energy and the environment to drug discovery, materials science and finance — under a proposed MCIT-led initiative, the Saudi Quantum DeepTech Foundry, positioning the Kingdom as a global hub for quantum applied to the problems that matter most.
“This is the moment protein functionality stops being a mystery and starts becoming designable. Together with Pasqal, we are bringing the chemistry that governs how proteins behave onto neutral-atom quantum hardware, opening a new path to understand, predict and ultimately design protein functionality.” said Dominik Grabinski, Chief Executive Officer of True Nexus. “This can change what is possible for the future protein economy.”
