Quantum spin resonance in engineered proteins for multimodal sensing

Journal article

Sensing technologies that exploit quantum phenomena for measurement are finding increasing applications across materials, physical and biological sciences1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6–7. Until recently, biological candidates for quantum sensors were limited to in vitro systems, had poor sensitivity and were prone to light-induced degradation. These limitations impeded practical biotechnological applications, and high-throughput study that would facilitate their engineering and optimization. We recently developed a class of magneto-sensitive fluorescent proteins including MagLOV, which overcomes many of these challenges8. Here we show that through directed evolution, it is possible to engineer these proteins to alter the properties of their response to magnetic fields and radio frequencies. We find that MagLOV exhibits optically detected magnetic resonance in living bacterial cells at room temperature, at sufficiently high signal-to-noise for single-cell detection. These effects are explained through the radical-pair mechanism, which involves the protein backbone and a bound flavin cofactor. Using optically detected magnetic resonance and fluorescence magnetic-field effects, we explore a range of applications, including spatial localization of fluorescence signals using gradient fields (that is, magnetic resonance imaging using a genetically encoded probe), sensing of the molecular microenvironment, multiplexing of bio-imaging and lock-in detection, mitigating typical biological imaging challenges such as light scattering and autofluorescence. Taken together, our results represent a suite of sensing modalities for engineered biological systems, based on and designed around understanding the quantum-mechanical properties of magneto-sensitive fluorescent proteins.

Authors: Abrahams, G; Štuhec, A; Spreng, V; Henry, R; Kempf, I

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Journal: Nature
• Pages: 1-8
• Publication date: 2026-01-21
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09971-3
• EISSN: 1476-4687
• ISSN: 0028-0836
• Language: English
• Keywords: Magnetic resonance imaging; Quantum; Molecular biophysics; Quantum sensor; Spin (aerodynamics); Quantum dot; Fluorescence; Magnetic field; Förster resonance energy transfer