THz and Biology

THz spectroscopy of proteins in aqueous media

This project aims to achieve a world first: to demonstrate experimentally—using an interdisciplinary approach involving biologists, physicists, and electronics engineers specializing in terahertz instrumentation (1 THz = 1012 Hz)—the mechanisms used by biomolecules to communicate with each other over long distances and under normal physiological conditions.
A scientific breakthrough linked to this project therefore lies in demonstrating the activation (under physico-chemical conditions typical of the cell cytoplasm) of long-range, high-frequency electromagnetic interactions within a living cell. These interactions, by selectively attracting the various molecular partners involved in specific biochemical reactions, would condition the "molecular machinery." The demonstration of these interactions would represent a revolution in our understanding of how living matter evolves.

BSA oscillations outside thermodynamic equilibrium.

These long-range interactions between biomolecules (where "long" means up to several hundred nanometers) will be demonstrated in particular by measuring the electromagnetic field emitted via a biocompatible THz near-field experiment. The development of such instrumentation is in itself a source of technological advances.

In terms of applications, this project paves the way for non-chemical external control of basic cellular functions (gene expression, metabolism, mitosis, etc.) with entirely new non-drug medical interventions. It may help to explain the therapeutic effects widely observed when electromagnetic fields—applied externally—are used on cancer cells.

• September 3, 2018: Publication of an article in Physical Review X entitled "Out-of-equilibrium collective oscillation as phonon condensation in a model protein."
• Nardecchia et al., "Out-of-equilibrium collective oscillations of a model protein in the THz frequency domain," link to ArXiv (2017).