McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Fabrisia Ambrosio, PhD, MPT (pictured), Director of Rehabilitation for UPMC International and an Associate Professor in University of Pittsburgh’s Departments of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Bioengineering, Physical Therapy, Orthopaedic Surgery, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, and Environmental & Occupational Health, is the co-principal investigator on the project entitled “Mechanistic Insight into How Quantum Effects Guide and Direct Cellular Functioning,” which has received funding from the Department of Defense Army Research Laboratory. David Pekker, PhD, Assistant Professor of Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, is also a co-principal investigator on the project.
The project rationale and justification follow:
Applying quantum principles to molecular structure and dynamics has helped drive key advances in biochemistry and molecular biology. Electron transfer chains, powered by quantum tunneling and ubiquitous in biological systems from respiration to molecular motors, take advantage of quantum coherence and entanglement to boost their efficiencies. In mammalian cells, the electron transport chain within mitochondria—which parallels the electron chain in photosynthetic cells—is a likely target of quantum phenomena. Given mitochondria's pivotal role in a multitude of cellular processes, including generation of free energy, epigenetic reprogramming, and intercellular signaling through the regulation of paracrine mediators, a better understanding of the role of quantum effects on mitochondria function may have important implications for the development of strategies to promote organismal health over time and in the setting of disease. Radical pair reactions are also ubiquitous in biology, and it is, therefore, natural to suspect that relatively small magnetic fields (on the order of the Earth's field) can affect these reactions. We hypothesize that radical pair reactions in mitochondria are a mechanism through which small magnetic fields can influence eukaryotic cells. At the same time, we must be open to the possibility that other quantum biological processes could be sensitive to magnetic fields. A relevant example is a human compass. While experiments on the human magnetic compass rule out the possibility that it utilizes the same mechanism as the bird compass (as humans are sensitive to the reversal of the field direction while birds are only sensitive to the field inclination), whether the mechanism is quantum or classical is yet to be determined. These studies support the overarching scientific premise that biological units within an organism are responsive to long-wavelength electromagnetic stimuli.
Congratulations, Dr. Ambrosio!
Illustration: McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
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Bio: Dr. Fabrisia Ambrosio