{"id":833394,"date":"2026-07-29T09:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/833394\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T09:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:51:10","slug":"iqc-researchers-use-single-molecule-as-quantum-sensor-to-map-biomolecules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/833394\/","title":{"rendered":"IQC researchers use single molecule as quantum sensor to map biomolecules"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blue<\/a>image: \u00a9sakkmesterke | iStock
\n Researchers at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo have developed a quantum sensing technique that utilises a single molecule to map the magnetic environments of nearby atoms<\/p>\n

Published in Physical Review X, the experiment establishes a new paradigm in nanoscale sensing<\/a> that could eventually enable scientists to map single protein structures for drug discovery and structural biology.<\/p>\n

Led by Dr Raffi Budakian, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the team demonstrated a mechanically detected molecular spin sensor capable of measuring ultra-weak local magnetic interactions.<\/p>\n

Overcoming the Limits of Diamond Quantum Sensors<\/p>\n

Existing nanoscale quantum sensors<\/a> often rely on synthetic diamonds engineered with atomic defects (such as nitrogen-vacancy centres) and read out using optical methods. While effective, these diamond-based sensors have physical limitations:<\/p>\n

Proximity constraints:<\/p>\n

Diamond sensors cannot always be placed close enough to a target biomolecule, limiting spatial resolution.<\/p>\n

The molecular advantage:<\/p>\n

The Waterloo team used trityl-OX063, a class of synthetic organic molecules, as the quantum sensor. Because it is a discrete molecule, it can be positioned significantly closer to target samples than solid-state diamond defects, maximising sensitivity.<\/p>\n

How the molecular sensor works<\/p>\n

The technique relies on tracking the electron spin of the trityl-OX063 molecule, which changes state in response to magnetic fields generated by nearby atomic nuclear spins:<\/p>\n

Nanowire force detection:<\/p>\n

To read out the signal, researchers used custom mechanical nanowires measuring 100 nanometers in diameter and 20 microns in length. These ultra-thin probes mechanically register the minute forces exerted by the changing electron spin states.<\/p>\n

Extending coherence time:<\/p>\n

A major hurdle in molecular quantum sensing<\/a> is maintaining quantum coherence before environmental noise disrupts the measurement. Lead author Sahand Tabatabaei developed a control sequence that extended the sensor\u2019s coherence time to 400 microseconds, roughly 60 times longer than standard spin-echo techniques in the same system.<\/p>\n

Path toward single-protein mapping<\/p>\n

Conventional structural imaging techniques require bulk biological samples consisting of millions of molecules, which masks individual structural variations.<\/p>\n

The Waterloo team\u2019s molecular quantum sensor can currently detect the magnetic state of about 10 nuclear spins. With the path to single-spin sensitivity now mapped out, the approach offers a viable route toward imaging individual protein structures and observing how drugs interact with biomolecules at the single-molecule scale.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Recommended Articles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"image: \u00a9sakkmesterke | iStock Researchers at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,290901,7102,66],"class_list":["post-833394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-molecular-science","tag-quantum","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}