Professor Ulrik Andersen from DTU Physics has received a generous grant of DKK 15m from Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Synergy Program for the project Interfacing emerging quantum technology with biology and neurophysiology (BioQ).
BioQ is a collaboration bringing together a dedicated team of quantum physicists and neurophysiologists from partners DTU Physics, DTU Electrical Engineering, Copenhagen University’s Department of Neuroscience and Hvidovre Hospital’s Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance.
From DTU Electrical Engineering, Associate Professor Axel Thielscher from Center for Magnetic Resonance's Neurophysics Group will participate, assisted by a Postdoc.
The objective is to achieve extraordinary sensitivity in imaging with resolutions from millimeter to nanometer-scale.
The vision is to realize room-temperature brain imaging at the whole-brain level with millimeter resolution, at the brain circuitry level with sub-micron resolution and at the synapse level with molecular nanometer resolution.
This is well beyond the limits of today and will bring the quantum sensing technology to real-life applications in bio-medical imaging.
The grant is for three years and finances four PhD fellowships and four Postdoc positions among the partners. Kick-off is 1 April 2018.
With the Interdisciplinary Synergy Programme, the Novo Nordisk Foundation seeks to support research projects across disciplines, organizations and national borders. The research projects must aim at interdisciplinary biomedical and biotechnological approaches to resolve challenges in relation to health and disease, or better usage of natural resources.
The goal of the research programme is to:
- Stimulate an interdisciplinary culture of research that spans across scientific disciplines and techniques.
- Pursue creative and novel, high-risk/high-gain research ideas.
- Strengthen and internationalize Danish research.