Revolutionary quantum sensors could enable earlier cancer diagnosis and treatment

Revolutionary quantum sensors could enable earlier cancer diagnosis and treatment

A revolutionary quantum sensing project that could transform cancer treatment by tracking how immune cells interact with tumors has been awarded a prestigious Future Leaders Fellowship worth £2 million.

The four-year grant, funded by UK Research and Innovation, focuses on a critical problem: immune cells often fail when they encounter cancer tissue because the tumor environment disrupts their metabolism. The groundbreaking project could enable the development of improved, patient-tailored cancer therapies and provide tools for earlier diagnosis and evaluation of cancer drugs.

Dr. Aldona Mzyk will use quantum sensors, devices that use the properties of quantum physics to detect tiny changes, to understand why current cancer immunotherapies work for some patients but not others.

Quantum sensors can detect molecular changes in living cells with extraordinary precision, measuring changes at length scales thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair. Dr. Mzyk's project will use sensors as small as a single electron to study magnetic signals from free radicals. These highly reactive molecules play a crucial role in cell metabolism and disease development.

The research addresses a major challenge in cancer treatment. While lab-made immune cells called CAR-T cells have successfully treated blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma, they work less than half the time on solid tumors such as breast, lung or colon cancer. This failure occurs because cancer tissue consumes available resources and produces metabolites that cause immune cells to malfunction.

Dr. Aldona Mzyk is currently a researcher at DTU in Copenhagen and will join the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences at Heriot-Watt University. She said: "Every minute, seventeen people in the world die from cancer. We know that the failure of immune cells is due to changes in their metabolism when they interact with cancer cells. To improve the performance of immune cells, we need to understand how to control these metabolic changes by monitoring the production of free radicals in the cells and essentially spying on their behavior. This requires incredibly fast and precise detection methods, which quantum sensors can provide for the first time."

The multidisciplinary project will combine quantum sensing with optical spectroscopy and microfluidics to create an integrated platform that can track cellular metabolism in thousands of cells within seconds. The project is in line with the UK's National Quantum Technology Program and the aim of equipping the NHS with highly sensitive quantum sensors.

Professor Cristian Bonato, principal investigator of Heriot-Watt's nanoscale quantum sensing facility, said: "Quantum sensing is transforming medical diagnostics because its sensitivity down to the level of individual molecules allows us to detect disease early, often leading to better treatment outcomes. At Heriot-Watt, we develop quantum sensors that achieve unprecedented precision, from imaging magnetic fields in nanomaterials to detecting small amounts of molecules relevant to biomedical research are.”

The scholarship from Dr.

Cristian Bonato, Principal Investigator, Heriot-Watt University

The Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences at Heriot-Watt is involved in four of the five quantum research centers announced last year by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Heriot-Watt leads the Integrated Quantum Networks Hub and is involved in quantum research with a focus on sensing, imaging, time measurement and biomedical applications.

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