Quantum Biology

21-22 July
University of Surrey, Stag Hill Campus, Lecture Theatre Block, Lecture Theatre M
Workshop Chairs: Jim Al Khalili and Johnjoe McFadden.

This meeting is part of a series of Focused Workshops delivered through the EPSRC NetworkPlus in ‘Understanding the Physics of Life 2’.

Workshop overview:
Quantum biology is an interdisciplinary field investigating non-trivial quantum effects, such as long lived quantum coherence, that play a role, at the molecular level, within living cells. The field has emerged in recent years as a result of a number of surprising experimental discoveries, such as quantum coherence in photosynthesis, quantum tunnelling in enzyme action and olfaction, possible quantum entanglement in avian navigation and several other areas. 
 
There are a number of universities in the UK that currently have activities in QB; among them are Surrey, UCL, Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Southampton, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow. However, in most these institutions, the activity is that of one or two researchers rather than a large, well-funded, research group.  There have been three recent UK meetings on QB. The first, in 2011, was held at the Kavli Centre of the Royal Society, which focussed mainly on quantum coherence effects in photosynthesis (https://royalsociety.org/events/2011/quantum-coherent-energy/). The second was a workshop held at Surrey in 2012 (http://www.ias.surrey.ac.uk/workshops/quantumbiology/). There was also a smaller meeting in Cambridge in 2015 (http://www.winton.phy.cam.ac.uk/QT_bio_workshop). In the light of significant recent interest in QB, we feel it is timely to run a new workshop under the umbrella of the EPSRC funded Physics of Life Network (PoLNet2). 

Purpose

The aim of the planned workshop is not so much to provide an opportunity for the small but growing QB community in the UK to update each other on their work, but rather to bring disparate communities together, to help create a coherent network of activities and researchers in the UK and to catalyse sizeable research programmes in a sustainable way. It will also showcase the exciting challenges in QB to potential funding bodies that we will also be inviting. To this end we are putting together a programme of speakers from a wide range of backgrounds to discuss their work and to sharpen research questions and methodologies. We believe strongly that there is capability for the UK to become a world leader in the field – we just need to get to know each other better!

Who should attend?

We invite participation by academic, industrial and clinical scientists in the UK who are interested in the central goal of generating new collaborative research interactions at the physical/life sciences interface focussed on this subject area. 

Programme

Day 1 - 21 July 2017

Day 2- 22 July 2017

08.30	Refreshments available
Session 3	Chair: Stephen Till
09.00	Alexandra Olaya-Castro (UCL) – Photon and electron counting statistics: a tool box for probing quantum effects in biomolecules
09.45	Alex Chin (Cambridge) – Structure-Function-Motion-Quantum: Harnessing dissipative quantum dynamics for light-harvesting in organic nanostructures
10.30	Refreshment Break
11.00	Jakub Sowa (Oxford) – Environment-Assisted Transport through Single-Molecule Junctions
11.30	Daniel Cole (Newcastle) – Towards ab initio Modelling of Quantum Effects in Biology
12.00	Nick Werren (Surrey) - Memory effects in open quantum systems
12.30	Lunch
Session 4	Chair: Lee Poeppelman
13.30	Peter Wright (Imperial College) – Non-optical nanoscale functional imaging for studying ion channels and receptors
14.10	Jose Jimenez (Surrey) – Experimental sequence space exploration of a fitness landscape of short RNA molecules
15.00	Refreshment Break
15.30	Open discussions and future directions
17.00	Workshop close

Click here to download the programme:

qb_workshop_brochure.pdf
File Size:	918 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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Registration

Registration fees:
Staff £65*
Student £35*
* Registration includes all refreshments, lunches and workshop dinner. Accommodation should be booked separately.
Registration deadline: 17th July
Registration for this event is now closed.   

Directions

The meeting will take place at the University of Surrey, Stag Hill Campus, Lecture Theatre Block, Lecture Theatre M. Maps and directions.