Summary
Chemotherapy is limited by the failure to clinically monitor the efficacy of the treatment in real-time, which results in suboptimal chemotherapy being given for a prolonged period. Predicting the outcome of chemotherapy immediately after drug administration can increase diagnostic accuracy, efficacy outcomes, and successful treatment. Quantum nanodiamond sensors can be used as optical sensors and drug delivery probes for chemotherapy. In particular, nanodiamonds containing nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers can serve as attractive probes for optically sensing chemical reactions and biological processes, thanks to their small size, bio-compatibility, and fluorescent properties of the NV centers. This work focuses on variations in the relaxation time in the nanodiamond NV centers, which change when the nanodiamonds are brought into proximity to Gadolinium (Gd) ions – for example, by using a peptide sequence as a connector between the nanodiamond and a Gd compound – and can be optically monitored. The experiment will investigate one type of action of chemotherapeutic drugs, which is to induce cell death (apoptosis) of the cancer cells. Specific enzymes released during apoptosis can cut the connection between the nanodiamonds and Gd, separating NVs from the Gd and decreasing the relaxation rate. Thus, observing the differences in relaxation rate upon chemotherapy allows the drug’s efficacy to be immediately monitored.
Figure 1. A specific enzyme (Caspase 3) is released in the presence of an effective chemotherapeutic drug, resulting in the separation of nanodiamonds and Gd and decreasing the relaxation rate.
Related Content
Carbon Nanotube Monolayer Josephson Junction Superconducting Qubit
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a promising material for use in Josephson-Junctions (JJs) given their unique properties, such as high electrical conductivity, pristine surface, inherent nanoscale dimension, and silicon-compatible processing
June 1, 2017
Applications of Neutron Interferometry and Structured Neutron Beams
Summary Neutrons are a powerful probe of matter and physics due to their Angstrom size wavelengths, electric neutrality and relatively large mass. In this project, we develop quantum sensors that exploit these attributes to increases the precision of measurements of fundamental forces and materials structure. With David Cory, Alexander Cronin of the University of Arizona, […]
July 31, 2018
Cryo-CMOS to Control and Operate 2D Fault-Tolerant Qubit Network
Summary Large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computation requires precise and stable control of individual qubits. This project will use complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology to provide a cost-effective scalable platform for reliable and high-density control infrastructure for silicon spin qubits. We will use sub-micron CMOS technology to address device and circuit-level challenges and explore the integration of […]
June 14, 2018
Folk Understanding of Quantum Physics
Summary It is often said that quantum concepts are counterintuitive. However, quantum concepts may not be equally counterintuitive to people from all cultural backgrounds. As cultural psychologists have discovered, culture fundamentally shapes the way people make sense of the world. In particular, the last few decades of research have documented cultural differences in appreciation of […]
March 24, 2021