How proteins are being tweaked to be quantum sensors inside the body, PgII

Key Highlights:

• Fluorescent proteins can be modified to act as quantum sensors to detect magnetic fields and radio waves inside living cells.
• Researchers modified enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (EYFP) to manipulate its spin state using lasers and detect magnetic resonance signals inside cells.
• Scientists engineered MagLOV proteins from plant light-sensing proteins, exhibiting magnetic resonance in living bacterial cells at room temperature.
• These protein-based sensors can be genetically encoded, allowing cells to produce them naturally and be positioned at specific locations inside the cell.

Detailed Insights:

• Fluorescent proteins, known for their ability to glow under illumination, have been used for decades in biology to track molecules inside cells.
• The discovery challenges the assumption that quantum effects cannot exist in living cells due to their warm, crowded, and constantly moving conditions.
• Radical pairs, formed when an electron interacts with a nearby molecule inside the protein, are sensitive to weak magnetic influences, altering the protein's light emission.
• MagLOV proteins combine stability, sensitivity, and genetic compatibility, overcoming limitations of previous biological candidates for quantum sensors.
• Magnetic modulation can improve conventional fluorescence imaging by separating the MagLOV signal from background fluorescence, enhancing weak signals in noisy environments.
• Protein-based quantum sensors could enable nanoscale measurements of magnetic fields, electric fields, temperature, and chemical environments directly inside cells.

Scientific/Technical Concepts Involved:

• Quantum Sensors: Devices that use quantum mechanical properties to measure physical quantities with high precision.
• Fluorescent Protein: A protein that emits light when exposed to specific wavelengths, used for tracking molecules in cells.
• Radical Pair: Two molecules with unpaired electrons, whose interaction is sensitive to magnetic fields.

How Protein-Based Quantum Sensors Work Inside Cells