Carlsberg and its ubiquitous branding have done a lot for ‘Danmark’, the country with the oldest flag. But the peninsula is more than that. A startup with QC pharma first in thought
But Science, As Life
Faster drug discovery: nothing sounds sweeter to the plethora of CEOs at every pharmaceutical company on the planet. A ten-year struggle costing billions of research dollars can be eradicated by using the magic of quantum principles. Quantum computing (QC) is the here and now and can make the very difficult very easy.
Or at least in principle, it can. But science — as life — isn’t such a walk in the park.
What it really takes is hard work and a bit of luck, too.
Maybe one day, COVID-19 will be a thing of the past. Like rinderpest or smallpox. Yet, to the hard-headed scientists, grounded in the empirical notion of research, that is but a pipedream, at least for the foreseeable future.
What QC can bring to the table is — at least with its current trajectory of success — a promise that advancements in humanity’s capacity for invention will only ever grow exponentially.
Already startups have appeared on the scene promising that their version of QC is the one to solve some of the biggest headaches in the pharmaceutical industry.
Molecular Quantum Solution (MQS), a Danish startup founded at the back end of 2019, thinks it has found solutions to some intractable problems in the pharma, biotech and chemical industries.
Let’s hear more about them, then:
MQS’s two founding fathers, Mark Jones and Łukasz Ruszczyński, believe they have the
tools [to] make use of super- and quantum-computers with computational models and algorithms to calculate the properties of materials and chemicals in a fast and efficient way
Another moonshot filled with hot air, perhaps? Or could it be something of a different ilk, an idea based on sound principles with a team capable of achieving it?
MQS
CEO Mark Jones, who was a postdoctoral researcher in chemical engineering the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) until earlier this year — where he specialized in ‘soft-sensor development for crystallization processes’ amongst other things — brings his abilities in management processes and customer relations in the soft skills while being adept in the more technical aspects of mathematical modelling, software development and ML.
CTO Łukasz Ruszczyński has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering. By training, he is a chemical technologist with skills in quantum chemistry and thermodynamics.
Both leaders are graduates of InnoFounder, a Copenhagen-based design-driven incubator ‘for recent graduates from Danish accredited educations’.
According to the InnoFounder website (Innovation Fund Denmark), graduates of the program get a year’s salary grant per founder, a grant for covering costs for development, a business mentor, workshops that run monthly, and free office space.
They might have biting gusts that sweep in off from the North Sea and too many wind farms, but the Danes have given us the Laudrup brothers and are top-notch at nurturing businesses that could change the world.
Lego and Pandora being two prime examples.
MQS’s services include:
— Encrypted and secure data transfer
— Fully automated quantum chemistry calculations on your server architecture
— Report and web API connection to retrieve the predictions for process or product design
With a supporting team of UX design specialists/engineers and a board of advisors knowledgeable in all things business development, Jones and Ruszczyński have collaborations with DTU’s Chemical Engineering department, Kaffe Bueno, Henlez, and BlueBenu.
I think that’s Skål to MQS, which could be — if things run their way — probably the best QC startup in the world.
