From Nanotech to Living Sensors: Unraveling the Spin Physics of Biosensing at the Nanoscale

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Speaker(s): Clarice Aiello

Substantial in vitro and physiological experimental results suggest that similar coherent spin
physics might underlie phenomena as varied as the biosensing of magnetic fields in animal
navigation and the magnetosensitivity of metabolic reactions related to oxidative stress in
cells. If this is correct, organisms might behave, for a short time, as “living quantum sensors”
and might be studied and controlled using quantum sensing techniques developed for
technological sensors. I will outline our approach towards performing coherent quantum
measurements and control on proteins, cells and organisms in order to understand how they
interact with their environment, and how physiology is regulated by such interactions. Can
coherent spin physics be established — or refuted! — to account for physiologically relevant
biosensing phenomena, and be manipulated to technological and therapeutic advantage?

Colloquium

Junior and senior physics majors attend our biweekly colloquium series, held on Tuesday afternoons at 4:30 p.m. in Shanahan B460. The talks are open to all students and to the public, and are frequently attended by scientists from the other Claremont Colleges, Cal Poly Pomona, and others. The series features speakers from a broad range of institutions and fields of physics.