Why quantum computers will have a main role in the future of medicine

Image courtesy of Steve Jurvetson at Flickr.com

For a couple of decades, some large computer companies are working without much echo in the media about an absolutely incredible invention: quantum computing. The funny thing is that something so incomprehensible to the public will, with all certainty, be one of the most decisive factors in the technological changes that will come in the future. It is not easy to understand what exactly it is and what it can be useful for, considering the fact that explaining quantum mechanics is not a simple task. However, what we can know, and what we are going to talk about here, is that quantum computing is fundamentally different from the computation we currently use, and, among the millions of applications that it may have, medicine, of course, it is certainly included.

Quantum computing, as a field in full research and experimentation (although there are already quantum computers, such as D-Wave Systems,) could have a direct application in the radiology area - although not only in that one, by the way. Some sort of magnetic resonance capable of identifying specific molecules or molecular groups inside the cells and not the organism as a whole is something that a modern computer just cannot do; and such system is needed.

The usual techniques do not operate good enough with reduced quantities, so, there is still so much to do in terms of high-precision medical procedures. The resonance property of this especially matters for the systems operating today, but there are still great technical limitations that prominently reduce the field of molecules that we can measure. Currently, these barriers are now overcome - to a certain extent - thanks to the software that processes the information, but also makes the images more complicated to interpret and process.

Read also: Nanomedicine: a great hope from the small world, by Sudir Raju

Therefore, one of the current needs is a system that uses quantum techniques to alleviate the limitations of current hardware, and, in this way, to perceive the magnetic field as a whole at the same time. This is only possible if one works from the superposition and indetermination that characterize the quantum universe. By expanding the field - which is natural to the instruments we use today - it is conceivable to increment by ten the proportion between the greatest noticeable field quality and the field exactness, contrasted with the standard strategy used until now.

One of the great challenges in this field of computing is that the techniques used by quantum PCs surpass the simply electronic advancements we have reach today, and can tackle the issues with which we daily collide in biomedicine.

But there is very good news. The quantum computer of IBM can be a key piece in the future of Medicine, because, thanks to this system, the complex molecular and chemical interactions could be unraveled, and this would facilitate the discovery of new medicines and materials for clinical use.

Image courtesy of IBM Research at Flickr.com

IBM has presented a large and disruptive industrial initiative to build and commercialize universal quantum computing systems. Today, the leading technologies in computer science are executed on classic computers, based on the binary system of zeros and ones, which can find patterns and make discoveries about an inordinate amount of existing data. However, quantum computers provide solutions to problems in which the patterns cannot simply be identified, either because the data does not exist, or because the number of possibilities that should be analyzed is so huge that a modern computer could never process it.

The quantum computer that IBM is designing could cover a wide variety of thematic areas, so that all future applications of this system would enrich different fields of science, both in the social area and in Medicine. Thanks to this system, the complex molecular and chemical interactions could be deconstructed, and this would facilitate the discovery of new medicines and materials for clinical use, among other things. The quantum computer can foster a key aspect for the future of health sciences, such as nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. Thus, quantum computing could boost the capacity of areas in which this technology is developed, such as machine learning, when the flow of data is very large, without mentioning its possible uses in the analysis of images or videos. Additionally, the development of security in the cloud could bring great advances. It could make the cloud much more secure by applying the laws of quantum physics to improve the privacy of the data, and, in this way, patients' medical records would be much better protected.

Another fundamental aspect in which this technology can contribute is in the field of logistics and supply chain. In this way, the system could decipher the optimal trajectories along the global systems, for example, to optimize the management of transport fleets to deliver during a period of low maritime traffic. Also, sci-fi dreams like intelligent machines that can operate humans could be perfectly possible thanks to this revolutionary technology.

We are on the verge of a new industrial revolution, and this will positively influence medicine. Let's keep the best hopes.

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Nanomedicine: a great hope from the small world

Image courtesy of Brookhaven National Laboratory at Flickr.com

A new interdisciplinary field of medical science is currently in the making. Its methods only leave the laboratories, and most of them still exist only in the form of projects. However, most experts believe that it is these methods that will become fundamental in the 21st century. For example, the National Institutes of Health of the United States have included nanomedicine in the top five priority areas of medical development in the 21st century, and the National Cancer Institute is going to apply the achievements of nanomedicine in the treatment of cancer. A number of foreign scientific centers have already demonstrated prototypes in the fields of diagnostics, treatment, prosthetics, and implantation.

“Nanomedicine is a medical application of nanotechnology. Nanomedicine extends from the medical use of nanomaterials to nanoelectronic biosensors and even the possible use of molecular nanotechnology in the future”.

Nanomedicine aims to provide a significant set of research tools and clinically useful devices in the near future. The National Nanotechnology Initiative is looking forward to new commercial applications in the pharmaceutical industry that may include advanced drug delivery systems, new forms of therapy and imaging in vivo. Neural electronic interfaces and other nanoelectronic sensors are another active goals for research.

Societies are constantly looking for ways to improve health, in terms of costs, coverage, effectiveness, response to emerging diseases, and demographic changes. Nanotechnology has been critically examined to determine how the new capabilities it represents can be applied to current medical needs. Because nanotechnology inherits its approach to certain diseases derived from current medical research, its main objective has been towards non-infectious diseases e.g. cancer, and degenerative diseases.

Some developments in biomedicine at the nanoscopic level have the potential to create new generations of medical implants that are designed to interact with the body, monitor the chemical composition of blood and, if necessary, release certain medications. Bones, cartilages, and artificial skins that in addition to not being rejected by the body, seek to help some parts of the human body to regenerate. There are also new systems for diagnosis, imaging, and regeneration; in this way, it is intended that the side effects of current systems and/or procedures be mitigated.

A classic in the field of nanotechnology developments and predictions, Eric Drexler in his fundamental works described the main methods of treatment and diagnosis based on nanotechnology. The key problem to achieve these results is the creation of special medical nanorobots - nanomachines for repairing cells. Medical nanorobots should be able to diagnose diseases, circulating in the human blood and lymphatic systems and moving in the internal organs, deliver drugs to the affected area and even do surgical operations. Drexler also suggested that medical nanorobots would provide an opportunity to revitalize people frozen by cryonics.

Achievements of nanomedicine will become widely available by different estimates only after 40-50 years. However, a number of recent discoveries, developments, and investments in the nanotechnology have led to the fact that more and more analysts are shifting this date for 10-15 years downwards.

Read also: How Medical Diagnosis Has Been Impacted By IT, by Sudir Raju

So far, nanomedicine is a large industry, where sales reached 6.8 billion dollars more than a decade ago. In this industry, there are more than two hundred active companies, in which at least $ 3.8 billion are invested annually.

Two types of nanomedicine have just been tried in mice and are now required to be tried in people. We are talking about the application of gold nanocapsules for analyzing and guiding the antibodies as a vehicle for medical solutions. Those gold nanoparticles are composed of clusters of gold atoms prepared from the reduction of gold salts. Due to changes in their surface plasmon resonance, gold nanoparticles can be used for colorimetric assays. By means of the control of the aggregation of gold nanoparticles, it has been possible to detect matrices of biomolecules.

Image courtesy of BASF - We create chemistry at Flickr.com

Similarly, disposing of the lethality of medications is another use of nanomedicine, which has indicated promising outcomes in rats. The advantage of introducing nanoscale gadgets in therapeutic innovations is that those little gadgets are not so obtrusive, and they can be embedded inside the organism, and, what's more, their biochemical responses are much quicker. These gadgets work faster and end up being more practical, even more than the traditional ways.

The nanobots of nanomedicine could be produced with the function of restructuring or repairing muscles or bony tissues. Fractures could be a thing of the past, nanobots could be programmed to identify fissures in bones and fix these in two ways; performing some process to accelerate the recovery of the broken bone or melting with the broken bone or even both, and thus with an infinity of diseases of various types dissolving substances of multiple varieties according to, in blood or in the area to be treated specifically, injecting small amounts of antibiotics or antiseptics in case of colds or inflammations, etc.

Currently, silver nanoparticles are being used as disinfectants and antiseptics in pharmaceutical and surgical products, in underwear, gloves, socks and sports shoes, in baby products, personal hygiene products, cutlery, refrigerators, clothes washers and all type of implantable materials.

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