Q-NEURO: Diamond Quantum Technology for the Investigation of Neurological disease

Understanding the function of the brain is one of the most significant challenges of the 21st century. Vast numbers of the human population face the prospect of neurodegenerative disease (such as Alzheimer's); numbers that will only get higher with ever-increasing lifespan, in-part due to success in other branches of medicine and improvements in healthy living conditions. Neurogenerative disease is devastating for both the patient, and his/her family and friends, who progressively 'lose' the one they care about. Moreover, societal and economic costs associated with the care regime needed for such patients are significant. The challenge is two-fold by nature of the immense complexity of the brain, contrasted with the minute underlying electromagnetic fields that interconnect individual cells. Unfortunately, there is a lack of methods to detect signalling processes with the desired sensitivity and sufficient spatial resolution, making the challenge of understanding the brain's complexity near insurmountable. Current state-of-the-art techniques monitor fluorescence changes of voltage dependent indicators or use electrical probes to measure voltages across cell membranes. At large scales, SQUID magnetometers are used for magnetoencephalography (MEG), but are insensitive to single nerve impulses and come at great financial cost. Each method has limitations in one or more of the following categories: signal to noise ratio, temporal resolution and spatial resolution. Hence there is a major need of revolutionary methods to overcome these barriers. Q-NEURO aims to fill a major, outstanding need in neuroscience research in such a revolutionary manor.

Q-NEURO will develop a novel imaging method to enable the detection of individual signalling events in neuroscience. The biosensor is based on quantum engineered diamond with properties that make it an unrivalled sensor for biology. Fluorescence microscopy will be used to readout an array of spins in diamond, which in turn will detect the magnetic fields produced during neural signalling. The spins are associated with the nitrogen-vacancy defect centre in diamond, a quantum coherent spin system allowing for ultrasensitive magnetic detection under ambient conditions.

The quantum-bio sensor developed by Q-NEURO will enable: (i) imaging of individual action potentials from neurons with high spatial resolution down to the nanoscale, (ii) real-time detection of action potentials with sub-millisecond temporal resolution, (iii) wide field-of-view monitoring of neuronal signalling events in two dimensional networks.

"What goes wrong in Alzheimer's disease? So far there has been no success in treating Alzheimer's disease. Although some drugs temporarily help the symptoms in some people, nothing has been discovered to slow or reverse the progression of the disease. Considering the massive scale of this disease and the devastating effects on the sufferers as well as their families, not to mention the economy, this is an urgent problem to address. Working on the hypothesis that the past failure is because the attempts at treatment come too late, once the brain is already too damaged for repair, we need to study the earliest changes that occur and the middle period; a long window of opportunity as plaques develop but irreversible damage is yet to occur"

In cell biology, there is currently a lack of techniques capable of measuring magnetic fields; rather the readout is linked to changes in ionic concentration (e.g. Ca2+) or voltage. The technologies developed by Q-NEURO will provide novel non-invasive magnetic imaging for a wide variety of applications in biology and medicine. New understanding of neuron function at the nanoscale will be provided by the ability of diamond sensors to non-invasively measure neuron activity with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. Imaging of magnetic fields also gives access to detection of radicals and paramagnetic ions in the intracellular environment. The unpaired electron spins of free radicals have a magnetic moment and these chemical species are important in immune response, cell death, ageing, and the production of energy via oxidative respiration. Many diseases are also characterised by either a build-up of heavy metals and their associated magnetic field (haemochromatosis, Alzheimer's disease), or a break-down in pathways associated with magnetic fields (multiple sclerosis, cardiac disease). Furthermore the movement of cells can be dictated by magnetic fields, as observed in magnetotactic bacteria and the organisation of cells in the embryo. It is expected that these phenomena will be able to be investigated through the technology success following Q-NEURO. Q-NEURO has the capacity to significantly reduce the complexity of neuronal activity detection. Moreover, the reduction of complexity and man-hours for experimental procedures will contribute to the overall lower cost. For such a potentially disruptive technology, the cost compares favourably to techniques currently adopted for high-sensitivity magnetometry such as SQUID and MRI systems.

Expected direct pathological impact
Neuropsychiatric diseases represent a considerable social and economic burden in the developed world. With yearly costs in the Billions of dollars, brain disorders are the major public health problem, representing an unquestionable emergency and a grand challenge for neuroscientists
In addition, by 2060, 1 in 3 Europeans will be older than 65. It has been estimated that a new case of dementia is currently occurring all over the world every 3.2 seconds, with progressively increasing associated costs. It is essential to find alternative strategies to support brain health care for patients both in terms of growing costs and to provide adequate innovative solutions, targeted to promote prevention, early diagnosis and personalised medicine. Q-NEURO specifically addresses these issues and will generate significant impact on the competitiveness of UK medical and biological research communities, as well as on health and well-being for UK and other peoples worldwide.