How can quantum sensing revolutionize biotechnology? UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Asst. Prof. Allison Squires had just eight minutes to convince a room full of biotech-oriented entrepreneurs and venture capitalists that quantum sensing innovations can help secure Chicago's future as a biotech hub.
Squires, the Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Molecular Engineering, spoke in one of the “lightning talks” at the 2023 Chicago BioCapital Summit. It was a natural fit for Pritzker Molecular Engineering, Squires said.
"Our entire engineering school is founded on the idea of finding new ways to innovate at the intersections of different fields,” she told the crowd Thursday at Fulton Labs, a new health sciences campus in Chicago’s Fulton Market neighborhood and future home of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago.
The event was presented by the Chicago Biomedical Consortium, a collaboration between UChicago, Northwestern, the University of Illinois Chicago and other area institutions to translate research into entrepreneurship.
“The CBC is focused on two things: getting Chicagoland inventions from lab to patient bedside and building companies here in Chicago,” said CBC Executive Director Michelle Burbea Hoffmann. “To do this, we need to build and reinforce networks of expertise that PIs and early company employees can tap into when they have questions or are faced with unknowns. Events like the Chicago BioCapital Summit help lay the foundation for these networks.”
The summit comes at a time when industry and state and federal leaders are looking to continue to grow Chicago as a tech hub in areas including biotechnology and quantum research. These include recent investments by Boeing and the Biden administration, as well as the work done by the National Science Foundation’s QuBBE Quantum Leap Challenge Institute under PME Prof. Greg Engel.
The combination of location, relatively affordable housing, a ready workforce and proximity to world-class research institutions such as the University of Chicago position Chicago for success, Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs said during his remarks at the summit.
New investment will mean development, jobs, and growth for Illinois, he told the crowd, but the benefits will resonate far beyond state lines.
“We all benefit when we have more opportunities, when we innovate,” Frerichs said.
For Squires and Pritzker Molecular Engineering, this means not only seizing entrepreneurial opportunities now, but developing and extending this market for future innovators tackling some of humanity’s biggest challenges – the mission of the school.
“Within QuBBE, we are very interested in training a diverse, next-generation workforce that is quantum-ready to work in these new industries as they emerge,” Squires said.
Squires’ research allows her to isolate, manipulate, and read out information from single nanoscale objects. This work sits right at the intersection of quantum sensors and biophysics, delivering high-precision measurements of the electronic states of individual molecules. Squires discussed an example application of multiplexing single-molecule measurements, getting lab-quality readings from complex mixtures of molecules extracted from the “wet, messy biological environments” of the human body.
When testing for any disease, doctors must look for certain biomarkers mixed in the stew of biological material within the sample. They’re trying to see the signal among the noise. This has always meant either finding ways to amplify the markers – boosting the signal – or getting a larger sample.
But Squires’ research team can identify individual biomarkers at “ridiculously low concentrations – tens of femtomolar.” With the ability to resolve single-molecule signals, tiny sample quantities can be used, and amplification is unnecessary.
Squires contextualized her own work in the broader picture of research in QuBBE, where scientists are working on projects from fundamental quantum sensor development through biomedical applications for the clinic.
“The thing that’s bringing sci-fi to life is using these quantum sensors for biological measurements,” Squires said. “This is a totally new frontier of biotechnology and Chicago is positioned to be a leader in this.”
The Chicago Biomedical Consortium co-hosted the summit with P33, World Business Chicago, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois Chicago.