Quantum biotechnology research themes and projects
Single protein dynamics and control
Proteins govern nanoscale life, from DNA replication to enzyme catalysis and energy transport. Achieving a predictive understanding of how their structure and dynamics determine function would profoundly change the underpinnings of biotechnology.
Join us to develop quantum tools and computational techniques to study single proteins with unprecedented speed and specificity, enabling new insights into disease and a step change in molecular engineering.
Contact us
If you would like to work with us within this research theme, email Associate Professor David Simpson at simd@unimelb.edu.au.
PhD projects
Find a PhD to suit your interests within this research theme.
| Project | Project lead |
|---|---|
| Develop appropriate regulatory frameworks for quantum technologies, generally and/or focused on quantum biotechnology, specifically | Dr Allison Fish |
| Ultrafast single-molecule visualisation of enzymatic structure-function relationships | Professor Antoine van Oijen |
| Nanophotonic approaches to single molecule-based directed evolution | Professor Antoine van Oijen |
Emergent phenomena in biology
The life of cells is governed by complex emergent behaviours. These behaviours maintain their health and defend them against disease. How they arise from molecular scale interactions remains a grand challenge of modern biology.
Join us to develop multi-modal quantum microscopes to probe dynamics at scales from single molecule to whole cell, and to transform understanding of how large-scale cellular behaviours emerge from the nanoscale dynamics of molecular machines.
Contact us
If you would like to work with us within this research theme, email Associate Professor Irina Kabakova at irina.kabakova@uts.edu.au.
PhD projects
Find a PhD to suit your interests within this research theme.
| Project | Project lead/s |
|---|---|
| Develop novel techniques to accelerate the imaging speed of Brillouin microscopes, with the focus on multiplexing and quantum metrology | Associate Professor Irina Kabakova |
| Rotational optical tweezers for measurements of micro-rheology and particle behaviour, enabling close to real-time studies of out-of-equilibrium systems | Professor Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop Professor Jennifer Stow |
| Multi-modal biosensors for assessment of cell polarity and changes in cell polarity due to gene deletions, drug treatments and physiological stressors | Professor Jennifer Stow Professor Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop |
| Develop quantum-enhanced microscopy methods to enable quantitative imaging of the single molecule dynamics that underpin large-scale emergent behaviour in a living cell | Associate Professor Elizabeth Hinde |
| Develop statistical and computational methods to model living cells at different molecular scales | Professor Kim-Anh Lê Cao Associate Professor Elizabeth Hinde |
| Develop high-speed, super-resolution microscope imaging strategies to map the intercellular organelles | Professor Dayong Jin |
Quantum-enabled neural imaging
The brain is the most complex organ in nature, with 86 billion neurons connected through 1014 synapses in humans. How its extraordinary computing power is achieved is far from fully understood.
Join us to create quantum microscopes and whole-brain imaging technologies and apply them to understand how neural networks change over time.
Contact us
If you would like to work with us within this research theme, email Associate Professor Lezanne Ooi at lezanne@uow.edu.au.
PhD projects
Find a PhD to suit your interests within this research theme.
| Project | Project lead |
|---|---|
| Develop magnetometers for room-temperature neural imaging, with the aim of enabling a new generation of portable MEG (magnetoencephalograpy) | Professor Warwick Bowen |
| Develop quantum-enhanced upconversion nanoprobes for neural imaging, as well as temperature-sensing technology | Associate Professor Jiajia Zhou |
| Use quantum technologies to measure neuronal function in stem cell-derived neuronal cultures and organoids | Associate Professor Lezanne Ooi |
| Lattice light-sheet microscopy and data analytics for photon-efficient volumetric imaging of multicellular networks of brain organoids | Professor Dayong Jin |
Quantum effects in biology
Many cellular processes occur at the intersection between classical and quantum physics. Whether organisms have evolved to exploit quantum coherence, superposition and tunnelling is a central question for understanding life, and may prove key to the design of better catalysts and energy harvesting systems.
Join us to answer this question using single-molecule quantum microscopes and hybrid quantum-classical molecular simulations.
Contact us
If you would like to work with us within this research theme, email Professor Alan Mark at a.e.mark@uq.edu.au.
PhD projects
Find a PhD to suit your interests within this research theme.
| Project | Project lead |
|---|---|
| Investigate computationally both electronic and nuclear structure to identify practical consequences of quantum entanglement and quantum coherence in biological processes | Professor Jeffrey Reimers |
| Investigate the application of quantum computers to molecular problems in the biotechnology context, bringing together our expertise in quantum chemistry and quantum simulation | Professor Lloyd Hollenberg |