QuantumSense - Quantum Tunneling Sensing of Biomolecules for High-Throughput Decoding of DNA and RNA

Project funded by Swedish Research Council (Research environment), grant 2018-06169_VR. Participating organisations named by the source: KTH, Royal Institute of Technology. Funded amount: SEK 26,500,000, as stated by the source. Runs 2018-12-01 to 2024-11-30. Keywords: Naturvetenskap, Natural Sciences, Biologi (Medicinska tillämpningar under 3 och lantbruksvetenskapliga under 4), Biological Sciences (Medical to be 3 and Agricultural to be 4), Biokemi och molekylärbiologi, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Source: OpenAIRE Graph, from the funder's project data (collected by OpenAIRE on 2025-12-04); national funding data, not CORDIS. Abstract given by the source: Sensing of biomolecules is critically important for almost any branch of biology and life-science research, as well as for medical practice. For example, fast and inexpensive sequencing of DNA and RNA is vital to realize the full potential of personalized medicine. However, current biomolecule sensing technologies are still too slow and offer too limited read-lengths for many applications. To address these limitations, our purpose is to build an interdisciplinary research environment around a novel technology based on quantum electron tunneling using nanogap electrodes integrated with nanopores, and focus our efforts on the high-throughput decoding of DNA and RNA. We will utilize a unique fabrication approach based on crack-junctions, developed by us, to realize in a scalable fashion tunneling electrodes that are separated by sub-2 nm wide gaps – the lack of such capabilities has been a major hurdle to date. Furthermore, we will develop biochemical protocols and innovative machine learning methods to classify individual nucleotides. We have brought together a multi-disciplinary team of 5 leading scientists covering scientific expertise in nanotechnology, biochemistry and signal processing. Our 6-year research effort will build bridges between biology, physics, and engineering, and if successful, the results will advance biology, life-science and clinical practice, thereby making significant scientific and societal impacts.

Original source.

Source: OpenAIRE Graph: projects of national funders, OpenAIRE, from the project data of Swedish Research Council. Retrieved 2026-10-22. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (OpenAIRE Graph). Selected metadata, adapted presentation; the publisher's record is authoritative. No endorsement by the source is implied. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).

AI-assisted summary: QuantumSense is a project funded by the Swedish Research Council with a grant of SEK 26,500,000, running from December 1, 2018, to November 30, 2024. It focuses on developing quantum tunneling sensing technologies for biomolecule analysis in biology and medical applications. Suggested technology pillar: sensing. Generated by AI from the public source text; it may contain errors and the original source is authoritative.