Q-NEURO: Diamond Quantum Technology for the Investigation of Neurological disease

了解大脑的功能是21世纪最重大的挑战之一。大量人口面临神经退行性疾病（如阿尔茨海默氏症）的前景；随着寿命的延长，这个数字只会越来越高，部分原因是其他医学分支的成功和健康生活条件的改善。神经变性疾病对患者及其家人和朋友来说都是毁灭性的，他们逐渐“失去”他们关心的人。此外，与此类患者所需的护理制度相关的社会和经济成本是巨大的。由于大脑的巨大复杂性，与连接单个细胞的微小潜在电磁场形成对比，挑战是双重的。不幸的是，目前还缺乏具有所需灵敏度和足够空间分辨率的检测信号过程的方法，这使得理解大脑复杂性的挑战几乎无法克服。目前最先进的技术监测电压依赖性指标的荧光变化或使用电探针测量细胞膜上的电压。在大范围内，SQUID磁力计用于脑磁图（MEG），但对单个神经冲动不敏感，并且成本高昂。每种方法在以下一个或多个类别中都有局限性：信噪比、时间分辨率和空间分辨率。因此，迫切需要革命性的方法来克服这些障碍。Q-NEURO的目标是在这样一个革命性的庄园里满足神经科学研究的一个重大的、突出的需求。Q-NEURO将开发一种新的成像方法，以检测神经科学中的单个信号事件。这种生物传感器基于量子工程钻石，其特性使其成为生物学上无与伦比的传感器。荧光显微镜将用于读出钻石的一系列自旋，进而检测神经信号传导过程中产生的磁场。这些自旋与金刚石中的氮空位缺陷中心有关，这是一种量子相干自旋系统，可以在环境条件下进行超灵敏的磁检测。Q-NEURO开发的量子生物传感器将实现：(i)从神经元个体动作电位的高空间分辨率成像到纳米级，（ii）以亚毫秒的时间分辨率实时检测动作电位，（iii）在二维网络中对神经元信号事件进行宽视场监测。

Understanding the function of the brain is one of the most significant challenges of the 21st century. Vast numbers of the human population face the prospect of neurodegenerative disease (such as Alzheimer's); numbers that will only get higher with ever-increasing lifespan, in-part due to success in other branches of medicine and improvements in healthy living conditions. Neurogenerative disease is devastating for both the patient, and his/her family and friends, who progressively 'lose' the one they care about. Moreover, societal and economic costs associated with the care regime needed for such patients are significant. The challenge is two-fold by nature of the immense complexity of the brain, contrasted with the minute underlying electromagnetic fields that interconnect individual cells. Unfortunately, there is a lack of methods to detect signalling processes with the desired sensitivity and sufficient spatial resolution, making the challenge of understanding the brain's complexity near insurmountable. Current state-of-the-art techniques monitor fluorescence changes of voltage dependent indicators or use electrical probes to measure voltages across cell membranes. At large scales, SQUID magnetometers are used for magnetoencephalography (MEG), but are insensitive to single nerve impulses and come at great financial cost. Each method has limitations in one or more of the following categories: signal to noise ratio, temporal resolution and spatial resolution. Hence there is a major need of revolutionary methods to overcome these barriers. Q-NEURO aims to fill a major, outstanding need in neuroscience research in such a revolutionary manor.Q-NEURO will develop a novel imaging method to enable the detection of individual signalling events in neuroscience. The biosensor is based on quantum engineered diamond with properties that make it an unrivalled sensor for biology. Fluorescence microscopy will be used to readout an array of spins in diamond, which in turn will detect the magnetic fields produced during neural signalling. The spins are associated with the nitrogen-vacancy defect centre in diamond, a quantum coherent spin system allowing for ultrasensitive magnetic detection under ambient conditions.The quantum-bio sensor developed by Q-NEURO will enable: (i) imaging of individual action potentials from neurons with high spatial resolution down to the nanoscale, (ii) real-time detection of action potentials with sub-millisecond temporal resolution, (iii) wide field-of-view monitoring of neuronal signalling events in two dimensional networks.