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From nanotech to living sensors: unraveling the spin physics of biosensing at the nanoscale

Clarice Aiello

Abstract

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?  

Bio

Prof. Clarice D. Aiello is a quantum engineer interested in how quantum physics informs  biology at the nanoscale. She is an expert on nanosensors harnessing room-temperature  quantum effects in noisy environments. Aiello received her Ph.D. from MIT in Electrical  Engineering and held postdoctoral appointments in Bioengineering at Stanford, and in  Chemistry at Berkeley. She joined UCLA in 2019, where she leads the Quantum Biology Tech (QuBiT) Lab.

 

 

Clarice Aiello Headshot
Clarice Aiello
UCLA
ECE 125
4 Oct 2022, 10:30am until 11:30am