100 Moments

10:10 10.10: Anatomy of a Moment

Lerner Research Institute
Cleveland Clinic main campus

Cleveland
10:10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time

Jun Qin, PhD, is deep in thought in his office, just down the hall from his lab, when a member of his research team pops in for a quick word. According to Julia Vaynberg, PhD, the drug they’re testing might not be having an effect on certain breast cancer cells. 

Dr. Qin is a structural biologist who designs drugs by studying the three-dimensional shapes of proteins that cause disease. He holds the Bonnie and Eunice Collins Endowed Chair for Innovative Diabetes Research. His work also has implications for other maladies, including cancer and heart disease.

“It’s like a puzzle,” he says. “We look for the perfect piece, a drug that matches the protein’s pocket exactly. When the protein becomes abnormal in certain diseases, we would use this drug to resume the normal function of the protein and cure the disease.” 

Going forward, quantum computing could dramatically accelerate the process. What now takes years might take only hours, Dr. Qin says. The IBM Quantum System One at Cleveland Clinic is the first quantum computer dedicated to healthcare research. 

For the time being, closer inspection reveals that the drug actually is fighting the cancer cells, although it’s not as potent as expected. 

Then again, science rarely advances in a straight line. Advancing is the important part. “I’m proud that our research is becoming more and more translational,” Dr. Qin says. “We can have more impact on patients’ lives.”

Photograph by Matt Kohlmann