IDAHO: Quantum DNA research receives $5M grant from the Department of Energy
qDNA Research Group members
Boise State’s Quantum DNA (qDNA) Research Group received a Phase II renewal grant of $5M from DOE EPSCoR as part of a broader announcement of funded energy-related research projects.
Composed of five research teams that span multiple departments and colleges at Boise State, and involving almost 30 faculty, professional staff and students, the qDNA Research Group is pioneering the use of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as a programmable, self-assembling architecture that organizes light-absorbing dye molecules to achieve quantum entanglement.
Quantum entanglement occurs when the excited state of one molecule in the aggregate cannot be described independent of the excited state of another, and is due to a collective interaction between the molecules.
Phase I funding advanced the group’s understanding of novel dye materials useful for pursuing entanglement, design rules for manipulation of dye, dye aggregate, and DNA-templated dye structure-property relationships, and the theoretical, computational, instrument, and methodological advances needed to create, measure, and control quantum entanglement.
Phase II funding will make it possible for the group to establish dye aggregates with desirable structure-property relationships that enable realizing entangled states and explore theoretically complementary approaches for measuring entanglement.