Summary
Through its phenomenal ability to image soft tissues, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has revolutionized both clinical medicine and research biomedicine. Nowadays, MRI scanners used clinically have spatial resolutions in the range of 0.5 mm. This enables identification and monitoring of disease processes throughout the body and visualization of minute brain structures. Magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM) brings the resolution down to the micron scale, so that cells and parts of cells can be seen. Using ultrasensitive silicon nano-wired mechanical resonators, we are working to distinguish small ensembles of nuclear and electron spins. In doing so, we are striving to bring MR down to the nanometer scale, allowing imaging of single viral particles. Subsequently, extending the approach to the Angstrom scale, our goal is to demonstrate MR imaging of individual protein molecules.
Related Content

Identifying the Potential of Quantum Dots to Detect and Disrupt Tau Protein Aggregation in Alzheimer’s Disease
Specific tests for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis are currently unavailable, despite AD being the leading cause of dementia. One hallmark of AD progression is the aggregation of tau proteins into paired helical filaments and neurofibrillary tangles, which is accelerated by the hyperphosphorylation of Tau proteins. However, the mechanism by which the hyperphosphorylated tau accelerates protein […]
March 27, 2023

Entangled Photon Orbital Angular Momentum Arrays
Summary Arrays of orbital angular momentum (OAM) states of light are a new form of structured light so far relatively unexplored in quantum information science. Unlike spin angular momentum of light, which is related to light’s polarization and covers two dimensions, OAM states, sometimes described as ‘donut beams’ due to the shape of the field […]
September 19, 2019

Zero-Dimensional Quantum Materials for the Next Generation of Highly-Selective Chemical Sensors
Summary Heavy metals are a major public health concern and their on-site detection in water supplies is not well served by existing lab techniques. We develop a new multi-modal platform comprising functionalized quantum dots of two-dimensional materials (2D-QDs) for the sensing of four highly-toxic heavy metal pollutants (arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury). The zero-dimensional […]
March 11, 2019

On-Chip Microwave-Optical Quantum Interface
Summary In this project we develop a quantum interface between microwave and optical photons as a key enabling technology of a hybrid quantum network. In such a network, the robust optical photons carry quantum information through optical fibres over long distances, while superconducting microwave circuits protected from thermal photon noise by the low temperature […]
October 29, 2018