This Week in Quantum Biology (Feb 15-21)

A weekly digest for all things quantum bio

Welcome to the Quantum Biology Ecosystem weekly digest! The field of quantum biology is growing. This update is meant to be the go-to source for news and developments in the field. Join the community and be part of the quantum biology revolution!

Quantum Biology Institute

The Quantum Biology Institute is a California non-profit with a new lab in Los Angeles. Founded by Clarice D. Aiello, the Institute aims to advance the basic science of quantum biology by building genuine quantum instrumentation to confirm that quantum effects are ubiquitous in biology and used for function.

Sorting Cables — Clarice spent the week sorting through and cataloguing the cables, components, and instruments left over from previous instantiations of the lab. Before being located at its new lab, the team had a tiny lab also in LA; before that, they had a lab at UCLA. That means there’s a lot to sort through. Luckily, being independent means there nothing stopping us from getting to it right away.

Magnetic Calibration System — Ale started building a machine to automatically measure the magnetic field in a macroscopic area. Apart from being extremely cool, why does this matter? As many will know, the Quantum Biology Institute is preparing to build a microscope that will detect long-lasting quantum phenomena inside cells at room temperature. The microscope will apply a weak magnetic field to the sample being studied. Ale’s machine will make it possible to efficiently test whether the magnetic field being applied is uniform over the entire sample.

Budget Preparation — The entire team worked together this week to put together a budget proposal for the Institute. This was a major challenge. Science involves uncertainty; budgets typically do not. Creating a budget for a scientific project is thus a balancing act, trying to something both accurate and accessible, while not accidentally giving the impression of greater precision than actually exists. Not to mention that people have different attitudes towards uncertainty and different amounts of experience with budgets, spreadsheets, and scientific instruments!

Quantum Biology DAO

The Quantum Biology DAO is a community-centric tokenocracy—an experimental form of decentralized internet organization—that raised $6.8 million for quantum biology in December 2024. The DAO is led by co-founders Clarice Aiello, Geoff Anders, and Alessandro Lodesani and governed by holders of its governance token, QBIO.

Quantum Biology Book Club — The Quantum Biology DAO continued reading Life on the Edge by Johnjoe McFadden and Jim Al-Khalili. This week we talked about topics raised by chapters 3-4, in particular, electron tunneling and “noise assisted processes,” which is a quantum phenomenon implicated in photosynthesis. Sound complicated? We’re all learning together how to explain these ideas as clearly and accessibly as possible. Join Clarice and other members of the DAO each week on Thursday at 2pm UTC (6am PT). Next week, on February 27, we’ll discuss chapters 5-6. Catch up with podcast summaries of chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4, and join our Discord for the meeting link and a free copy of the book.

Penn Blockchain 2025 — Yesterday, Geoff spoke on a panel entitled “Does DeSci Really Make Sense?” at the Penn Blockchain Conference 2025. Joining Geoff was James Sinka from BIO Protocol, Andrew Verbinnen from HairDAO, and Brian Magierski from Cerebrum DAO. The panel focused on the basics of DeSci, how DeSci is enabling science in cases where other funding mechanisms have failed, and how community is central to the success of the DAO. Backstage, the speakers also had a chance to educate the organizers of the conference: DeSci does make sense and more people need to know about it.

Bridge to Solana Still Pending — To our mild frustration, the bridge to Solana has been delayed again. The relevant vendor has now projected “the end of next week.” Obviously, we’re all waiting eagerly for the quantum biology governance token, QBIO, to be available more widely! For those just tuning in, Solana is a blockchain that prioritizes speed and efficiency; the DAO’s governance token is currently only available on Ethereum, a blockchain that prioritizes security. Making QBIO available on Solana will make participation in the governance of the DAO more widely available.

Communications Working Group — The Communications Working Group met again and the DAO is moving ahead with a number of different suggestions. There’s now a planned trivia event, which will be scheduled for right after the bridge to Solana (see above) is complete. How much do you know about quantum biology and the Quantum Biology ecosystem? You’ll have a chance to find out! Another great suggestion that the DAO will follow up on is providing information about the tax treatment of QBIO. We don’t want anyone to be unnecessarily scared away!

Learn About the Science — In this explainer, Clarice introduces the idea of spin, a quantum mechanical property that governs how particles interact with magnetic fields. Does it explain the ideas clearly? How could future videos be improved? The Communications Working Group discussed the video this week. If you have any feedback, please reach out to us on Twitter or join the Discord and share your thoughts. In the future, this sort of question will be handled by the new Education Working Group, a subgroup of Communications.

Social Media Links

Here is some more content that came out this week:

• Ale unboxing video — Ale dramatically opens some boxes containing parts for the automated magnetic calibration system

• Michael welcome post — Michael Montague joins the Quantum Biology Institute, posted on LinkedIn and our best performing social media of the week

Join the DAO — learn more about how to join the Quantum Biology DAO

Other Quantum Biology News

Outside the Institute and the DAO, there’s more going on in quantum biology.

Big Quantum Biology Meeting — At the Big Quantum Biology Meeting, Tom Fay gave a talk entitled “Quantum coherence in biological electron transfer.” Tom is a theoretical chemist who works to understand quantum effects in complex condensed phase systems. He is currently working as a postdoc at Aix-Marseille Université developing polarizable QM/MM methods for electronic excited states and will soon be starting his own group at UCLA.

Up Next Week...

Next week, the Quantum Biology Institute should release its budget proposal, the QBIO token might become available on Solana, and Lewis M. Antill will be giving a talk entitled “Single-photon quantum effects in fluorescent biomolecules” at the Big Quantum Biology meeting.

May the quantum be with you!

The Quantum Biology DAO team