Research Areas - (5) Quantum Biology (Entanglement in Living Systems)

Full path: Biology > Biophysics > Quantum Biology (Entanglement in Living Systems)

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics and Astronomy (AMOPP) | Bose Quantum Information Group @ UCL
Summary:

Bose originated (with Marletto and Vedral) the Bose-Marletto-Vedral (BMV) proposal to witness whether gravity is fundamentally quantum, by testing for gravitationally-induced entanglement between two spatially superposed masses using matter-wave (Stern-Gerlach) interferometry -- an idea he co-developed with quantum-sensing experimentalists including Andrew Geraci (Northwestern) and Peter Barker (UCL). He continues to develop the theory of these quantum-gravity-induced entanglement of masses (QGEM) tests, including decoherence mitigation and multi-qubit witnessing schemes, positioning nanocrystal/levitated-mass interferometry as a route to laboratory tests of quantum gravity.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Physics | Curmi Molecular Biophysics Laboratory @ UNSW
Summary:

Curmi is a structural and single-molecule biophysicist whose most-cited work is on the light-harvesting antenna proteins of cryptophyte algae, where he and collaborators reported long-lived electronic coherence at ambient temperature — one of the founding results of the quantum-biology field and still one of its most argued-over. His group determines the structures of these antenna complexes and engineers them, and separately works on protein-based molecular motors and on single-molecule fluorescence and FRET measurements of conformational dynamics. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — Curmi supplies the biological systems in which quantum coherence is actually claimed to matter; a pT/sqrt(Hz)-class spin sensor capable of watching radical-pair or exciton dynamics in situ would be aimed at exactly the questions his structures raise. Preferred attribute present: genuine quantum-biology substrate rather than a quantum-flavoured metaphor.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Chemistry | Kassal Group @ USyd
Summary:

Kassal is the leading Australian theorist of quantum effects in light harvesting. He established the distinction between coherent processes and coherent states in photosynthesis — showing that under incoherent sunlight at steady state, wavelike motion per se does not enhance efficiency, while environment-assisted transport and supertransfer genuinely can — and has since developed a classification of the mechanisms by which coherence (excitonic, vibrational, or of the light field itself) can improve energy transport. He also pioneered quantum-computer algorithms for chemistry. A distinct and directly relevant thread is the theory of spectroscopy with non-classical light: what entangled or squeezed photons can reveal about molecular coherence that classical light cannot. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — his work is the theoretical counterpart to the quantum-biology ambitions of the NV community: where NV ensembles at pT/sqrt(Hz) try to detect the magnetic signatures of biological spin chemistry, Kassal asks what quantum coherence is actually doing in those systems and whether quantum light can interrogate it.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics & Astronomy – AMOPP | Quantum Biomolecular Processes Group (Olaya-Castro Group) @ UCL
Summary:

Olaya-Castro leads theoretical research on quantum phenomena in biological systems. Research directions: (1) Quantum coherence in photosynthesis — open quantum systems theory for energy transfer in light-harvesting complexes, probing whether quantum coherence provides functional advantage; vibronic coupling models for chromophore-protein complexes; (2) Counting statistics and noise in exciton and charge transfer; (3) Quantum thermodynamics of biomolecular machines — efficiency limits and entropy production in molecular motors; (4) Non-classical features of electronic/vibrational dynamics in chromophores; (5) Connections between quantum information measures and biological function. Collaborates with Bain and Llorente-Garcia on joint experiment/theory biosensing projects. Theoretical work only — no experimental activity.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics (Condensed Matter Physics Sub-department) | Quantum Devices and Biosystems Group @ Oxford
Summary:

Vedral leads the Quantum Devices and Biosystems group, working at the intersection of quantum information and biology. Research themes include: (1) quantum effects in living systems — studying entanglement and non-classicality in biological organisms such as tardigrades placed in quantum superposition inside superconducting qubits; (2) BMV-type experiments to test whether gravity is a quantum field by measuring gravity-mediated entanglement between two massive quantum superpositions; (3) theoretical frameworks for witnessing quantum effects in complex macroscopic systems. While primarily theoretical, the group actively collaborates with and directs experiments. Borderline: included as the group formally aims for experimental demonstrations of quantum effects in living systems.