To explore the transformative potential of quantum computing in biomedical research, the National Institutes of Health Office of Data Science Strategy hosted an innovation lab that included a challenge prize competition. Teams competed for a share of $100,000.
Sunho Park, PhD, an artificial intelligence scientist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, was a part of a six-member team that received a $12,500 innovation prize. The team’s work focused on determining tissue and electrophysiological properties of the heart in vivo based on existing imaging approaches using quantum computing.
Park continues to work on this initiative in the lab of Tae Hun Hwang, PhD, professor of Surgery, founding director of the Molecular AI Initiative and director of AI Research in the Section of Surgical Sciences at VUMC.
“This accomplishment has catalyzed a new research direction within the Molecular AI Initiative focused on quantum applications in biomedicine,” Hwang said. “While our initial emphasis is on precision oncology, we are now extending this framework to transplant immunology, metabolic disease and other complex biological systems where molecular heterogeneity and predictive uncertainty remain major barriers to progress.
“Dr. Park’s success highlights how Vanderbilt’s Molecular AI Initiative continues to expand into emerging domains that fuse AI, quantum computing and translational medicine, positioning us at the leading age of next-generation biomedical innovation.”
