When a Milk Tooth Meets Quantum Computing

How the SAGUTXOA project is connecting patient-derived neurons, rare diseases and quantum analysis — and what LKS Next will bring to Bilbao

What if a child's milk tooth could help researchers understand a rare neurodegenerative disease?

It sounds almost like the beginning of a children's story. Yet this is the very real scientific premise behind SAGUTXOA — "little mouse" in Basque — an ambitious project bringing together The Walk On Project Foundation, LKS Next, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Miguel Hernández University.

The idea begins with the dental pulp found inside milk teeth donated by children affected by rare neurological conditions. From these cells, researchers can generate functional human neurons in the laboratory. These neurons develop characteristics of the disease affecting the child, creating a highly personalised cellular model through which researchers can observe how the condition behaves.

The Walk On Project describes these patient-derived neurons as a particularly valuable test environment because they reproduce the disease without requiring the genetic transformation of the cells. Instead of relying exclusively on animal models or abstract simulations, researchers can study living human neuronal systems connected directly to the individual condition.

This alone is an important scientific development. But it also creates a new challenge.

Each neuronal model generates enormous volumes of electrophysiological, proteomic and transcriptomic data. Researchers need to compare neurons affected by disease with healthy neurons, identify differences across multiple biological layers and find patterns that may remain invisible when each dataset is examined separately.

This is where quantum computing enters the story.

Looking for patterns hidden inside complexity

Aitor Moreno Fernández de Leceta, Head of Quantum Technologies and Systems at LKS Next, is leading the quantum and neurocomputational dimension of the project.

The purpose is not to introduce quantum computing simply because it is a frontier technology. It is to explore whether quantum algorithms can help researchers analyse highly complex biological information more holistically, comparing healthy and affected neuronal systems and identifying patterns that conventional approaches might struggle to reveal.

The project's first research phase is concentrating on rare neurological conditions including adrenoleukodystrophy and congenital epilepsy. A public biobank already contains more than 50 neuronal lines, with further donations expected. The accumulated laboratory data will be analysed with support from the Basque quantum ecosystem, including the IBM Quantum System Two infrastructure in San Sebastián. The aim is to identify biomarkers, possible therapeutic targets and new indications of whether potential treatments are working.

This does not mean that quantum computing is about to produce an immediate cure. The researchers themselves are careful not to create false expectations. SAGUTXOA is an exploratory scientific project, and its value lies precisely in creating a new way of asking questions about diseases whose complexity and rarity have often limited traditional research.

It also illustrates something increasingly important for health innovation: breakthrough technologies rarely create value in isolation. Progress comes from connecting clinical knowledge, human biology, data science, computing infrastructure and the lived experience of patients and families.

LKS Next has already been exploring this intersection between neurocomputing, artificial intelligence and quantum technologies. Its work with The Walk On Project brings together neuroscientists, engineers and human-centred perspectives with the ambition of accelerating diagnosis, therapies and rehabilitation.

From quantum possibility to responsible implementation

Aitor Moreno will bring the SAGUTXOA experience to the Health Data Forum Global Hybrid Summit in Bilbao as part of the session From Strategy to Practice — Basque Use Cases, on 24 September.

His contribution will provide a tangible example of how the Basque health and technology ecosystem is moving beyond general discussions about quantum computing. It will show what happens when advanced computational capability is connected to a defined health challenge, real biological data and a multidisciplinary research partnership.

But the participation of LKS Next in Bilbao extends well beyond this single case.

On the second day of the Summit, Lucía Arriola García, Head of Digital Law at LKS Next, will participate in the Opening Dialogue — Systems, AI & EHDS: From Data to Health Systems Impact. Her contribution will introduce the legal perspective into a discussion involving European policy, national implementation and enabling infrastructure.

As organisations seek to use health data and artificial intelligence responsibly, innovation cannot be separated from the interaction between the GDPR, the AI Act and the European Health Data Space. Lucía will help the panel examine where these frameworks create uncertainty, how fundamental rights can be protected and why public trust must be treated as a condition for implementation rather than as a communication exercise after technology has already been deployed.

Later that day, Leire Sarasua Ronda, Head of Data and Artificial Intelligence at LKS Next, will present the ZAINDATA case during the session Use Cases — Imaging at Scale & Interoperability.

ZAINDATA addresses another essential implementation challenge: interoperability between health data spaces and social-care data spaces. Health and social care are often experienced by citizens as part of the same journey, yet their information systems, governance arrangements and institutional responsibilities remain fragmented. The case will explore what it takes to connect these environments while respecting their different purposes and responsibilities.

Together, the three contributions form a coherent story.

Aitor Moreno will examine how quantum technologies could help researchers discover patterns within complex biomedical data. Lucía Arriola will address the legal and governance conditions needed for responsible innovation. Leire Sarasua will show how interoperability must work across institutional boundaries if data is to create value in people's real lives.

This is precisely the journey that the Health Data Forum wants to make visible in Bilbao: moving from technological possibility to trusted and workable implementation.

The future of health data will not be built through one technology, one regulation or one organisation. It will emerge from the ability to connect scientific ambition with governance, infrastructure and human purpose.

Sometimes that journey may even begin with something as small as a child's milk tooth.