Professor Liang Le's team from Wuhan University's Institute for Advanced Studies has achieved a breakthrough in single-cell bio-spin measurement and quantum biosensing, with their latest study published online in Advanced Materials.

The paper, Long-Term Bio-Spin Readouts Enable Decoding Immune-Imposed Stress at the Single-Cell Level, introduces a long-term bio-spin measurement method at the single-cell level, utilizing quantum sensing technology based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in nanodiamonds.

The research utilizes nanodiamonds with NV centers as intracellular nano quantum sensors to measure cellular states under immune stress at the single-cell level. These nanodiamonds are internalized by cells through endocytosis.

Due to their high biocompatibility and chemical stability, they can be passed down to progeny cells during cell division while maintaining their quantum sensing capabilities over extended periods.

By exploiting the NV centers' sensitivity to paramagnetic noise, the team conducted continuous spin relaxation measurements, converting intracellular oxidative stress states into quantitative, time-resolved bio-spin trajectories.

The study reveals that the impact of immune stress on cell fate is determined by the concentration of oxidants at a given time and the cumulative amount of paramagnetic stress within the cell and its dynamic regulatory capacity.