Fresh off its success using AI to develop a blockbuster COVID vaccine, up-and-coming biotech player Moderna (founded 2010) has won the confidence of 112-year-old Big Blue as a strategic partner.

Under the agreement, IBM will lend its know-how in quantum computing and AI to help Moderna broaden a key realm of research behind its vaccine, messenger RNA (mRNA) science.

Quantum computing holds promise for tackling massively complex problems at mindbending speeds. Unlike supercomputing, which is based on traditional principles of computer design, build and function, quantum computing uses qubits (rather than binary bits) to run multidimensional algorithms based on the principles of quantum mechanics. The latter field deals with matter and light at the level of atomic and subatomic physics. (Read IBM’s lay description of quantum computing here.)

IBM will equip Moderna with access to some of IBM’s most advanced quantum computing capabilities. These will come by way of IBM’s Quantum Accelerator program and Quantum Network, augmented by Big Blue’s human expertise in computing for the life sciences.  

Moderna scientists will receive training in quantum technology. According to an announcement posted April 21, participants from both companies will work on ways to apply the burgeoning computer science to Moderna’s most pressing scientific challenges.

Moderna+IBM teams will use IBM’s AI foundation model called MoLFormer. This system “infers the structure of molecules from simple representations, making it faster and easier to screen molecules for new applications or create them from scratch,” IBM explains. The model may help uncover molecules’ project-relevant properties, leading to informed predictions of how potential mRNA drugs would perform.

Upshot: The partnership’s aim will be to develop new mRNA medicines that are safe, efficacious and profitable. To get it done, IBM and Moderna will combine advanced drug discovery processes with generative and other types of AI, some of which will be deployed with quantum computing.

“We are aiming for breakthrough advances with quantum computing, so we are investing now in building a quantum-ready workforce to be fully prepared to harness the power of this technology.”—Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel

“We are witnessing a revolution in the world of computing, driven by extraordinary advances in AI and quantum computing. Moderna will be able to take advantage of our multi-year research efforts in generative AI for therapeutics that can allow scientists to better understand how molecules behave and may facilitate creating entirely new ones.”—IBM senior VP and research director Darío Gil, PhD

Full announcement here.