Dr. Gabriele Lo Monaco (Università di Palermo)

Folding proteins with quantum computers: present and future

Proteins are basal building blocks of any living being. They consist of (long) chains of amino acids
that can fold in various complex three-dimensional structures: the shape of a folded protein
establishes its function. The native three-dimensional conformation of a protein can be in principle
predicted from the sequence of amino acid components only: the protein folding program aims to
provide tools to perform systematic and accurate predictions about protein structures, a goal of
fundamental importance for pharmaceutical industry.

The intention of this talk is first to review the basic concepts necessary to understand the protein
folding problem and discuss the present state-of-art with emphasis on the principal neural networks
devised for accurate protein structure predictions. Finally, I will discuss how quantum algorithms
can come to the aid and the realistic perspectives in the NISQ era.