Quantum physics suggests a new way to study biology, with results that could revolutionize our understanding of how life works

Imagine using your phone to control the activity of your own cells to treat injuries and diseases. This sounds like the imagination of an overly optimistic science fiction writer. But one day, through the emerging field of quantum biology, it might be possible.

Over the past few decades, scientists have made incredible progress in understanding and manipulating smaller and smaller biological systems, from protein folding to genetic engineering. However, the extent to which quantum effects affect living systems remains poorly understood.

Quantum effects are phenomena that occur between atoms and molecules and cannot be explained by classical physics. It has been known for more than a century that the rules of classical mechanics, such as Newton’s laws of motion, do not hold true at the atomic scale. Instead, tiny objects behave according to a different set of laws, known as quantum mechanics.

To humans, who can only perceive the macroscopic world, or the world visible to the naked eye, quantum mechanics may seem counterintuitive and somewhat magical. In the quantum world, things can happen that you might not expect, such as electrons crossing tiny energy barriers and emerging unscathed on the other side, or appearing in two different places at the same time, a phenomenon called superposition.

I’m trained as a quantum engineer. The study of quantum mechanics is often technology-oriented. Somewhat surprisingly, however, there is growing evidence that engineers over billions of years of practice have learned how to harness quantum mechanics for optimal functionality. If this is true, it means our understanding of biology is fundamentally incomplete. It also means that we can exploit the quantum properties of biological matter to control physiological processes.

Quantum nature in biology may be real

Researchers can manipulate quantum phenomena to build better technologies. In fact, you already live in a quantum-driven world: from laser pointers to transistors in GPS, MRI and computers, all these technologies rely on quantum effects.

Generally speaking, quantum effects only manifest themselves at very small length and mass scales, or at temperatures close to absolute zero. This is because quantum objects such as atoms and molecules lose their quantumness when they interact uncontrollably with each other and their environment. In other words, the laws of classical mechanics better describe macroscopic collections of quantum objects. Everything that begins quantum dies classical. For example, an electron can be manipulated to be in two places at once, but after a while it ends up in only one place, which is what classical expectations would have it.

So in a complex, noisy biological system, most quantum effects are expected to disappear quickly, washed away in what physicist Erwin Schrödinger called the warm, moist environment of the cell. For most physicists, the fact that the living world operates at high temperatures and complex environments means that classical physics can adequately and completely describe biology: no funky hurdles to cross, no being in more than one place at once.

However, chemists have long begged to differ. Studies of fundamental chemical reactions at room temperature have clearly shown that processes occurring within biological molecules such as proteins and genetic material are the result of quantum effects. Importantly, this nanoscale, short-lived quantum effect is consistent with some macroscopic physiological processes that biologists have measured in living cells and organisms. Research shows that quantum effects influence biological functions, including regulating enzyme activity, sensing magnetic fields, cellular metabolism and electron transport in biomolecules.

How to study quantum biology

The tantalizing possibility that subtle quantum effects can tune biological processes presents both exciting frontiers and challenges for scientists. Studying quantum mechanical effects in biology requires tools that can measure short time scales, small length scales, and subtle differences in quantum states that induce physiological changes, all integrated in a traditional wet laboratory environment.

In my work, I build instruments to study and control the quantum properties of small objects such as electrons. Just like electrons have mass and charge, they also have a quantum property called spin. Spin defines how an electron interacts with a magnetic field, just like charge defines how an electron interacts with an electric field. I’ve been building quantum experiments since graduate school, now in my own lab, that aim to apply customized magnetic fields to change the spin of specific electrons.

Research shows that many physiological processes are affected by weak magnetic fields. These processes include stem cell development and maturation, cell proliferation rates, repair of genetic material, and countless others. These physiological responses to magnetic fields are consistent with chemical reactions that depend on specific electron spins within the molecule. Therefore, applying weak magnetic fields to change electron spins can effectively control the final products of chemical reactions and have important physiological consequences.

Currently, a lack of understanding of how such processes work at the nanoscale prevents researchers from accurately determining the strength and frequency of magnetic fields that cause specific chemical reactions in cells. Current mobile phones, wearable devices, and miniaturized technologies are already sufficient to generate customized weak magnetic fields that can alter physiological functions, whether for good or bad. So the missing piece of the puzzle is a deterministic codebook for how to map quantum causes to physiological consequences.

In the future, fine-tuning nature’s quantum properties could allow researchers to develop therapeutic devices that are non-invasive, remotely controlled and accessible via mobile phones. Electromagnetic therapy has the potential to be used to prevent and treat disease, such as brain tumors, and in biomanufacturing, such as increasing the production of lab-grown meat.

A new way of doing scientific research

Quantum biology is one of the most interdisciplinary fields ever created. How do you build communities and train scientists to work in this field?

Since the pandemic, I have organized large-scale quantum biology conferences in my lab at UCLA and at the Quantum Biology Doctoral Training Center at the University of Surrey, providing weekly informal forums for researchers to meet and share their Expertise in areas such as mainstream quantum physics, biophysics, medicine, chemistry and biology.

Research with a potentially transformative impact on biology, medicine and the physical sciences will need to work within an equally transformative model of collaboration. Working in a unified laboratory will enable scientists from different disciplines with vastly different research approaches to conduct experiments consistent with the breadth of quantum biology, from quantum to molecular, cellular and organic.

The existence of quantum biology as a discipline means that traditional understanding of life processes is incomplete. Further research will bring new insights into age-old questions about what life is, how to control it, and how to learn from nature to build better quantum technologies.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit independent news organization providing you with facts and trustworthy analysis to help you understand our complex world. Do you like this article? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Author: Clarice D. Aiello, UCLA.

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Clarice D. Aiello has received funding from NSF, ONR, IDOR Foundation, Faggin Foundation, and Templeton Foundation.