Cleveland Clinic, with IBM and Japan’s RIKEN, has achieved the largest-ever quantum simulation of protein structure.
CLEVELAND —
Cleveland Clinic just did something that’s never been done before
This is not science fiction. Cleveland Clinic researchers, working alongside scientists at IBM and Japan’s RIKEN research institute, have used quantum computing to simulate protein structures containing up to 12,635 atoms — the largest biologically meaningful molecular simulation ever performed with quantum hardware.
To put that in perspective: just six months ago, the same method could only handle structures roughly 40 times smaller. And the accuracy of a key step in the process improved by as much as 210 times over that same period.
The technique pairs IBM’s quantum processors with two of the world’s most powerful classical supercomputers — Fugaku at RIKEN in Japan, and Miyabi-G, operated by the University of Tokyo and the University of Tsukuba. Classical computers broke down enormous protein-ligand complexes into smaller, computable pieces. IBM’s 156-qubit quantum processors — including the one housed right here at Cleveland Clinic — then calculated the quantum-mechanical behavior of each fragment. The results were reassembled into a complete molecular picture that conventional computers or artificial intelligence alone could not produce.
Why does this matter to you? One of the most time-consuming and costly steps in developing new medicines is figuring out how a drug candidate binds to its protein target. That process currently takes years and enormous resources. This research is a major step toward changing that.
“By crossing the 12,000-atom barrier, we have significantly expanded the scale of biologically meaningful molecular simulations possible with quantum computing,” said Kenneth Merz, Ph.D., lead author of the study and a staff scientist in Cleveland Clinic’s Computational Life Sciences Department. “We demonstrated a framework for applying these methods to scientifically relevant problems at a larger scale.”
The team sees this as a starting point — with a clear path toward even larger, more accurate simulations that could one day model enzyme behavior, drug mechanisms, and other molecular processes currently only studied through hands-on laboratory experimentation.
UnitedHealthcare takes aim at one of health insurance’s biggest frustrations
Prior authorization — the requirement that patients get insurance company approval before a procedure is covered — has long been one of the most despised aspects of American health insurance, loathed by patients and doctors alike. Now, the nation’s largest commercial insurer is making a significant move to scale it back.
UnitedHealthcare is cutting prior authorizations by roughly a third, eliminating them for certain outpatient surgeries, echocardiograms, and some chiropractic care. The company is also exempting approximately 1,500 rural hospitals — including all critical access hospitals — from most prior authorization requirements across all lines of business by fall 2026, a move designed to ease the administrative and financial strain that disproportionately burdens rural health systems.
This is part of a broader industry shift. More than 50 health insurers committed in June 2025 to improve the prior authorization process, and health plans have collectively eliminated 11% of prior authorizations since those commitments were made — though groups representing doctors and patients say those cuts haven’t been meaningfully felt yet.
UnitedHealthcare is also working to standardize electronic prior authorization submissions industrywide, with more than half of its prior authorization volume included in that effort — a number expected to exceed 70% by the end of 2026.
Rare virus, three deaths, and new questions about how it spreads
Health officials are investigating a troubling outbreak aboard a cruise ship — and what makes it unusual is not just where it happened, but how the virus may have moved from person to person.
As of May 4, seven cases have been identified aboard the MV Hondius — two laboratory-confirmed cases of hantavirus and five suspected cases — including three deaths, one critically ill patient, and three individuals with mild symptoms.
Hantavirus is typically spread when people inhale particles from infected rodent urine, droppings, or saliva. Only one strain, the Andes virus, is known to have the potential for person-to-person transmission, and even that is rare. It is primarily found in Chile and Argentina — where the ship originated.
The World Health Organization says it cannot rule out human-to-human transmission in some of the cruise ship cases, noting that several patients had very close contact with one another — in at least one instance, a married couple. WHO emphasizes, however, that the risk to the general public is low, and that hantavirus does not spread the way flu or COVID-19 does.
WHO believes the initial cases may have been infected off the ship, possibly during activities in Argentina before passengers boarded. Investigations are ongoing.
There is no cure for hantavirus — treatment focuses on managing symptoms, and severely ill patients may require breathing support. The bottom line for travelers: experts say this outbreak poses little risk to the broader public, and no travel restrictions have been issued.