{"id":848655,"date":"2026-09-15T13:48:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T13:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/848655\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T13:48:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T13:48:18","slug":"a-quantum-leap-in-computing-began-with-baby-steps-at-cleveland-clinic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/848655\/","title":{"rendered":"A quantum leap in computing began with baby steps at Cleveland Clinic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cleveland is home to one of world\u2019s most sophisticated pieces of machinery.<\/p>\n

IBM\u2019s powerful quantum computer is housed at the Cleveland Clinic as part of the health system\u2019s Discovery Accelerator initiative.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of only a few dozen of its kind in the world, and researchers are still figuring out how to use it.<\/p>\n

Leading the effort is the Clinic\u2019s first chief research information officer, Dr. Lara Jehi.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/p>\n

Dr. Lara Jehi is a practicing neurologist and the Cleveland Clinic’s Chief Research Information officer. She’s manages research using the quantum computer that is part of a 10-year, $100 million partnership with IBM. <\/p>\n

She’s a neurologist who each week still treats patients, while managing research that uses one of the world’s most powerful pieces of computing hardware.<\/p>\n

Jehi and the Cleveland Clinic birthed the quantum computer in 2021 as part of a 10 year, $100 million partnership with IBM<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jehi chose the very visible employee cafeteria at the Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute to house the quantum system because she wanted to spark ideas among her colleagues. <\/p>\n

It sits inside an 11-foot-tall glass cube specially designed to absorb vibrations from passing traffic.<\/p>\n

Jehi feels a very personal connection to the quantum computer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my baby, ” she said, with a laugh. “It took nine months to build it. That’s how long it takes to have a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Jehi’s dreams for the computer mirror those for her own, human children. “I’m raising it so that it can do good in the world,\u201d she said, smiling.<\/p>\n

The quantum cube<\/p>\n

Exactly what that “good” will be, and how it will be accomplished, are complicated by the fact that researchers are still learning the computer’s capabilities.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/p>\n

Vipin Chaudhary is head of Case Western Reserve University’s computer science department. He says quantum computing still has hurdles to overcome, such as the high error rate that is inherent in current systems, but he sees the technology as a major leap forward.<\/p>\n

The IBM quantum computer uses the mysterious physics of the subatomic realm to perform millions of calculations simultaneously.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome magic happens in there,” said Vipin Chaudhary, chair of the computer science department at Case Western Reserve University.<\/p>\n

He’s being humorous, but it’s true that the quantum system is fundamentally different from ‘classical’ computers, which solve equations through a series of yes\/no questions using 1\u2019s and 0\u2019s, or “bits.” Quantum computers, on the other hand, use \u2018qubits\u2019 that can be yes, no or maybe \u2014 all at the same time, allowing them to sift through many solutions simultaneously.<\/p>\n

But quantum indeterminacy can cause “lots of errors,\u201d Chaudhary said. That\u2019s because maintaining the \u2018uncertain\u2019 quantum state is tricky.<\/p>\n

In order to do its quantum magic, the IBM chip must be cooled to nearly absolute zero \u2014 or minus 460 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n

Quantum drug discovery<\/p>\n

Still, \u201cit is amazing how far we have come,” Chaudhary said.<\/p>\n

For example, quantum chemist Dr. Kenneth Merz has already used the Clinic’s computer \u2014 the first quantum computer housed at a health care system \u2014 to help map the structure<\/a> of a protein, the 12,000 atom enzyme trypsin, that was a quantum leap past previous modeling.<\/p>\n

Merz said drug discovery \u2014 finding out exactly how medicines work in the body \u2014 is where quantum computing shines, including ultra-high-accuracy calculations of drug molecules binding to receptors.<\/p>\n

The work of Merz and his team is up for this year\u2019s Gordon Bell Prize, considered the \u201cNobel” of supercomputing.<\/p>\n

Quantum competitiveness <\/p>\n

Cleveland Clinic\u2019s Lara Jehi is confident the technical issues will be solved \u2014 and there\u2019s a deadline.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuantum has become a national priority,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration this summer issued an executive order requiring error-free quantum computing to be up and running in the U.S. government by 2028 \u2014 part of a competitive strategy for the U.S. to dominate cutting-edge computing.<\/p>\n

Jehi serves on a federal sub-committee looking at the uses of quantum computing in life science research. She and her team have so far found quantum works best in tandem with \u2018classical\u2019 computers in solving big problems.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s understandably proud of her baby, now a promising toddler.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike all babies, it\u2019s going to evolve and we will figure out things with it that we had no idea we could,” she said. “The future with it is still to be charted.”<\/p>\n

She\u2019s proud that part of that future is being made in Cleveland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cleveland is home to one of world\u2019s most sophisticated pieces of machinery. IBM\u2019s powerful quantum computer is housed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[191,74],"class_list":["post-848655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-computing","tag-computing","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}