Scottish scientists to ‘spy’ on cancer cells using quantum technology

A revolutionary quantum sensing project that could transform cancer treatment by tracking how immune cells interact with tumours has been awarded a prestigious £2 million Future Leaders Fellowship.

The four-year fellowship, funded by UK Research and Innovation, focuses on a critical problem: immune cells often fail when they encounter cancer tissue because the tumour environment disrupts their metabolism. The pathbreaking project could enable the development of improved patient-tailored cancer therapies and provide tools for earlier diagnosis and evaluation of anti-cancer drugs.

Dr Aldona Mzyk will use quantum sensors, devices that harness the properties of quantum physics to detect minuscule changes, to understand why current cancer immunotherapies work for some patients but not for others.

Quantum sensors can detect molecular changes inside living cells with extraordinary precision, measuring changes on length scales thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair. Dr Mzyk's project will use sensors as small as a single electron to probe magnetic signals from free radicals. These highly reactive molecules play crucial roles in cell metabolism and disease development.

The research addresses a major challenge in cancer treatment. While laboratory-engineered immune cells called CAR-T cells have successfully treated blood cancers like leukaemia and lymphoma, they work in less than half of cases for solid tumours like breast, lung or bowel cancer. This failure occurs because cancer tissue consumes available resources and produces metabolites that cause immune cells to malfunction.

Dr Aldona Mzyk is currently a researcher at DTU in Copenhagen and will join the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences at Heriot-Watt University. She said: "Every minute, seventeen people in the world die from cancer. We know that immune cell failure comes from changes in their metabolism when they interact with cancer cells. To improve immune cell performance, we need to understand how to control these metabolic changes by monitoring free radical production inside the cells - essentially spying on how they behave. This requires incredibly fast and precise detection methods, which quantum sensors can provide for the first time."

The multi-disciplinary project will combine quantum sensing with optical spectroscopy and microfluidics to create an integrated platform capable of tracking cellular metabolism in thousands of cells within seconds. The project aligns with the UK's National Quantum Technology Programme and the goal of equipping the NHS with ultra-sensitive quantum sensors.

Professor Cristian Bonato, Principal Investigator for Heriot-Watt's Nanoscale Quantum Sensing facility, based in the School of Engineering & Physical Sciences, said: "Quantum sensing is transforming medical diagnostics as its sensitivity, down to the single molecule level, enables us to detect disease early, which often leads to better treatment outcomes. At Heriot-Watt, we're developing quantum sensors that achieve unprecedented precision, from imaging magnetic fields in nanomaterials to detecting small quantities of molecules relevant for biomedical research. Dr Mzyk's fellowship represents exactly the kind of innovative and pathbreaking application that could revolutionise healthcare, in synergy with our partners in the "UK Quantum Sensing hub for Biomedical Research"."

The Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences at Heriot-Watt is involved in four of the five quantum research hubs announced last year by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Heriot-Watt leads the Integrated Quantum Networks Hub and participates in quantum research focused on sensing, imaging, timing, and biomedical applications.