QMaP – Metabolism Plasticity in cell interactions investigated through quantum sensing.

Scientific research on quantum technology has brought us to the point where quantum sensors as small as a single electron can be used to detect small quantities of molecules with high sensitivity. In particular, I will use the spins of electrons in a tiny nanodiamond to probe magnetic noise from radicals, (very reactive molecules that are crucial for biological processes but also involved in development of many diseases) as radicals regulate the metabolism of cells of our organs. Quantum sensing is now sufficiently mature to enable measurements inside living cells and tissues, enabling us to gain new insights into biology that can be translated into real-world applications in medicine. In the proposed research, I aim to advance quantum sensing to answer important questions in cancer immunology.
My ambitious goal stems from fact that every minute, seventeen people in the world die from cancer. In the UK alone, there are more than a thousand people diagnosed per day. Recently, therapies with laboratory engineered immune cells (CART cells) have been developed and successfully introduced to treat blood and lymph cancers (leukaemia and lymphoma) with considerably greater efficiency than other known therapy types. However, for the most common and morbid solid tissue cancers like breast, lungs or colon, this therapy works in less than half of the cases. The main reason centres on the fact that cancer tissue consumes all available resources and produces metabolites that result in failure and death of immune cells. It has been shown that immune cells failure comes from changes in their lipid metabolism when they interact with cancer cells. To improve performance of immune cells we should understand how to control this metabolic changes by controlling for example radical production inside the cells. This requires high speed and precise detection methods, which are currently missing.
My multi-disciplinary research will combine quantum sensing with optical spectroscopy and microfluidics to develop an integrated platform enabling tracking of cellular radical-regulated lipid metabolisms of thousands of cells and cell interactions within several seconds. This will generate new basic knowledge which will enable engineering of improved patient-tailored cell-based therapies of cancer and provide tools for earlier diagnosis and evaluation of anti-cancer metabolic drugs. Quantum sensing could then be used in clinical diagnostics to characterize patients’ cancer type and tailor immune therapy.
This project is supported by 6 industrial partners (QT Sense B.V., Diatope GmbH, Cambridge Raman Imaging Ltd., Ingenza Ltd., Cell ProTx Limited, BioLum Sciences) and 3 academic partners (University of Edinburgh, Polytechnic University of Milan, University of Nottingham), that will help me tackle the multi-disciplinary challenges and bring quantum sensing closer to the healthcare community. This work is aligned with the National Quantum Technology Programme, and it will bring us one step closer to the dream, expressed in the UK National Quantum Strategy, to equip the NHS with ultra-sensitive quantum sensors by 2030.