In drug discovery research there is a clear and urgent need for non-invasive detection of cell membrane ion channel operation with wide-field capability. Existing techniques are generally invasive, require specialized nano structures, or are only applicable to certain ion channel species. We show that quantum nanotechnology has enormous potential to provide a novel solution to this problem. The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in nano-diamond is currently of great interest as a novel single atom quantum probe for nanoscale processes. However, until now, beyond the use of diamond nanocrystals as fluorescence markers, nothing was known about the quantum behaviour of a NV probe in the complex room temperature extra-cellular environment. For the first time we explore in detail the quantum dynamics of a NV probe in proximity to the ion channel, lipid bilayer and surrounding aqueous environment. Our theoretical results indicate that real-time detection of ion channel operation at millisecond resolution is possible by directly monitoring the quantum decoherence of the NV probe. With the potential to scan and scale-up to an array-based system this conclusion may have wide ranging implications for nanoscale biology and drug discovery.
@article{arxiv.0911.4539,
title = {Monitoring Ion Channel Function In Real Time Through Quantum Decoherence},
author = {L. T. Hall and C. D. Hill and J. H. Cole and B. Städler and F. Caruso and P. Mulvaney and J. Wrachtrup and L. C. L. Hollenberg},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0911.4539},
year = {2010}
}