Research Areas

New Horizons in Quantum Biology
Philip Kurian, Howard University

​How does living matter organize, synchronize, and coordinate its fundamental quantum constituents across many orders of magnitude in the spatiotemporal scale?

The Quantum Biology Lab seeks to understand phonon, exciton, polariton, and plasmon correlations in biomolecular environments that have implications for biological structure and function. Our research pushes at the boundaries of conventional dogmas in the life sciences, and in the application of physics to biosystems, to uncover new insights with the potential for biomedical impact.  Perhaps we will ultimately elucidate the foundational question: What is life?

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Fundamental Theory Development

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​​Electrodynamic Synchronization of Biomolecular Behavior

Out-of-equilibrium dynamics generate giant collective dipoles in biosystems and their aqueous environments, producing nonlinear amplification cascades through the terahertz (THz) region and beyond. The implications for electrodynamic communication in neural behavior and conscious processing abound.

Superradiant Effects in Biological
​Architectures of
​Multi-Level Chromophores

Is there a quantum optical superhighway in the cell? Hierarchical structuring of aromatic networks at multiple scales exhibits unique signatures of superradiance that may be exploited for energy transport, biosensing, and spectrophotometric detection capability.

Entanglement and Plasmonic Allostery in Complex Protein and DNA Systems

The tantalizing possibility that enzymes may use fundamentally quantum electronic correlations arising from van der Waals fluctuations to synchronize catalytic processes in the transition state opens new vistas for the quantum information processing capacity of living matter. ​

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Enabling Experiments

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​Terahertz spectroscopy
​of biosystems far from equilibrium

In collaboration with colleagues at Howard and Montpellier,  we are developing experimental setups to probe collective, optically induced mechanical restructuring (photon-to-phonon transduction) of biomolecular systems in ionic liquids in the near-field, few-THz regime. 

Development of fast detectors for extant and emergent pathogens

The identification and discrimination of highly symmetric architectures of light-absorbing molecules  exhibiting cooperative superradiant effects in diverse viral and bacterial systems could lead to a revolution in our ability to optically detect pathogens without costly chemical testing.

Nonlinear spectroscopies and multi-wave mixing experiments

In collaboration with colleagues at Northwestern, we envision the next generation of quantum computational tools derived from the robust maintenance of delicate coherences at high temperatures, with the goal of transferring these quantum correlations in biomatter to the polarization states of a photonic readout.