Polaris Quantum Biotech, based in Durham NC, has come out of stealth mode. They've been working with Fujitsu on a new drug discovery platform. Using Fujitsu’s Digital Annealer, they can crunch over 1 billion molecules in their search for new lead molecules. This startup is an example of using quantum annealing, a subset of quantum computing, to solve optimization problems.

The current pilot is working on a drug for dengue fever, a disease spread by mosquitoes with over 100 million infections and 22,000 deaths every year.