Cleveland Clinic, IBM to expedite discovery in healthcare, life sciences

Cleveland Clinic and IBM on Tuesday announced a partnership to fast-track discovery in healthcare and life sciences. The landmark, planned 10-year collaboration will see the establishment of the Discovery Accelerator, a joint IBM-Cleveland Clinic center that will use high performance computing on the hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing technologies to fundamentally accelerate discovery in life sciences and healthcare.

The development of a strong research and clinical infrastructure will empower new approaches to public health threats like the COVID-19 pandemic, discoveries for patient care and big data medical research in ethical & privacy preserving ways, according to a press release on IBM’s website. Researchers plan to, through the Accelerator, use advanced computational technology to collect and assess data for better research in Cleveland Clinic’s recently announced Global Center for Pathogen Research & Human Health in areas like single cell transcriptomics, genomics, population health, chemical and drug discovery, and clinical applications.

Under the partnership, IBM will be installing its Quantum System One, the first-ever circuit-based commercial quantum computer in the world, on Cleveland Clinic’s campus in Cleveland. It will be IBM’s first private sector, on-premises Quantum System One, a 20-qubit computer, in the United States. Also, the first of its next-generation 1,000+ qubit quantum systems will be installed by IBM at a client facility, also in Cleveland, in the coming years. The quantum program will enable active engagement with startups, government, universities, industry and other relevant organizations.

“As the data becomes more and more massive with our ability to generate data from our research, we need computational ability – places to store the data, analyze the data, memory for what we have been doing, artificial intelligence as we start to think about better ways to take care of patients through our research,” said Cleveland Clinic chief research and academic officer Serpil Erzurum, MD, in a video interview added as one of the Media Downloads to the news release on Cleveland Clinic’s website.

“So, putting that all together, and with IBM’s very forward-thinking research division, we built this Discovery Accelerator. We believe it’s going to transform what we do in research, but also how we do it,” she added.

Cleveland Clinic CEO & president Tom Mihaljevic, MD, said, “Through this innovative collaboration, we have a unique opportunity to bring the future to life. These new computing technologies can help revolutionize discovery in the life sciences.”

He added, “The Discovery Accelerator will enable our renowned teams to build a forward-looking digital infrastructure and help transform medicine, while training the workforce of the future and potentially growing our economy.”

IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna commented, “The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned one of the greatest races in the history of scientific discovery – one that demands unprecedented agility and speed. At the same time, science is experiencing a change of its own – with high performance computing, hybrid cloud, data, AI, and quantum computing, being used in new ways to break through long-standing bottlenecks in scientific discovery.”

He concluded, “Our new collaboration with Cleveland Clinic will combine their world-renowned expertise in healthcare and life sciences with IBM’s next-generation technologies to make scientific discovery faster, and the scope of that discovery larger than ever.”

Cleveland Clinic’s new center has gathered together a research team that is committed to expanding knowledge of virus-induced cancers, viral pathogens, genomics, immunotherapies and immunology. It is supported by a $500 million investment from the State of Ohio and Jobs Ohio, in addition to Cleveland Clinic itself.

“Quantum will make the impossible possible, and when the Governor and I announced the Cleveland Innovation District earlier this year, this was the kind of innovative investment I hoped it would advance,” said Ohio Lt. Governor Jon Husted, director of InnovateOhio. “A partnership between these two great institutions will put Cleveland, and Ohio, on the map for advanced medical and scientific research, providing a unique opportunity to improve treatment options for patients and solve some of our greatest healthcare challenges.”