ProteinQure’s co-founder argues “messy biology experiments” are still the bottleneck.
Quantum chemistry has been touted as having the potential to revolutionize drug discovery. But Mark Fingerhuth, the co-founder and chief research and development officer of Toronto biotech startup ProteinQure, says we’re not quite there yet.
The news: Fingerhuth’s comments were made at Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)’s Super Session on Wednesday morning during Toronto Tech Week. During a fireside on Xanadu’s journey and quantum computing, Xanadu founder and CEO Christian Weedbrook said quantum chemistry might be “the lowest-hanging fruit” given its theoretically lower qubit requirements. Fingerhuth, who spoke on the following panel, shared a more grounded perspective.
From the source: Fingerhuth said quantum chemistry hasn’t yet had its “ChatGPT moment” when it comes to drug discovery. “I’m still very optimistic when it comes to quantum, but over the last nine years, I realized how simulating a molecule more accurately … isn’t really what drug discovery and pharma is bottlenecked by—it’s really by the messy biology experiments.”
Following the thread: Since 2017, ProteinQure has been building the computational infrastructure to develop new drugs with less trial-and-error. The startup’s current focus is on treating breast and brain cancers, problems that Fingerhuth said aren’t really addressed by any quantum speed up or better quantum algorithm. ProteinQure’s work focuses on peptides—a wide-ranging class of drugs that have been the focus of intense scientific and public interest recently, thanks to the success of drugs like Ozempic.
Final thought: Rather than quantum computing, which ProteinQure has pivoted away from, Fingerhuth said the company has relied on classical algorithms and AI. The co-founder said the latter has enabled ProteinQure’s biggest breakthrough to date: advancing its AI-designed peptide therapeutic to a Phase 1 clinical trial.
Feature image courtesy Josh Scott for BetaKit.