QSB · Quantum Sensing for Biology
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-07-07 → 2020-07-06
- EU contribution
- €269,858
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-GF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Quantum Sensing for Biology
The overall issue being addressed in this research is the development of a practical quantum sensing technology which allows one to probe fragile tissues and biological materials in a completely non-invasive way. In fact, the idea is to design more sophisticated quantum sources and quantum measurements which are extremely more accurate than the current classical setups, so that the quantum setup can be implemented with very few photons. In the long run, this research is important for the society because it may lead to the development of completely non-invasive quantum devices for biological analyses and bio-medical applications, e.g., in hospitals, where the radiation dose absorbed by patients is still a non-trivial problem to solve. The realistic and short-term objective of this research is to make the first steps in this direction by developing a biologically-driven theory of quantum channel discrimination and estimation. In particular, this is applied to the development of a non-invasive prototype of quantum photometer, which is able to read the concentration of bacteria in samples by employing just a few photons.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Modern physics has contributed to the development of powerful instruments and diagnostic tools for biology and medicine, with a direct impact on both our well-being and life expectancy. Today, it is timely to ask if the novel field of quantum information is ready to provide new methods for the life sciences. This proposal makes a step in this direction, introducing non-invasive quantum techniques for experimental biology, with potential applications to biomedical imaging. My goal is to show how quantum correlations (entanglement or discord) can be exploited to realize a fully non-invasive form of spectroscopy, which can be safely applied to fragile materials, such as photo-degradable biological samples (DNA/RNA) or in-vivo human tissues. These objectives are not met in today’s biology labs, where UV-light photometry heavily damages DNA/RNA samples, or in public hospitals, where X-ray scans expose patients to significant radiation doses, with non-negligible risks of cancer. The basic rationale behind the use of quantum correlations relies on their superior capacity to detect small variations in the absorption properties of the materials, even when only a few photons are employed. By exploiting this remarkable feature, I will prove the possibility of non-invasive testing of biological samples. My central task will be the design of a practical model of a quantum-enhanced photometer which is fully based on continuous-variable systems. This design will involve the extension of quantum sensing and metrology to a more advanced double-box formulation where two channels, representing seeded and blank samples, are simultaneously probed. The realization of such a quantum-enhanced instrument would allow for real-time continuous measurements of organic molecules and nucleic acids without any photo-degradation.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITY OF YORK · YORK NORTH YORKSHIRECoordinatorUnited Kingdom
- MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · CambridgeUnited States
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union