Keio University

World's First: Successful Detection of Fever in an Individual Animal Using a Quantum Thermometer with Fluorescent Nanodiamonds

Publish: September 14, 2020
Public Relations Office

2020/09/14

Osaka City University

Keio University

Kyoto University

An international joint research group—including lecturer Masazumi Fujiwara, professor Yoshio Teki, professor Eriko Nakadai (Kage), and graduate student Siboku Son (at the time of the research, currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Miyazaki School of Medicine) from Osaka City University's Graduate School of Science and Graduate School of Human Life Science; project associate professor Yutaka Shikano from Keio University's Graduate School of Science and Technology (who is also a researcher at the Quantum Computing Center and an associate member of the Institute for Quantum Studies at Chapman University); professor Naoki Komatsu from Kyoto University's Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies; and professor Oliver Benson and graduate student Alexander Doms from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin—has developed a quantum thermometry technology using chemically modified fluorescent nanodiamonds. They have succeeded in directly detecting, for the first time in the world, the fever of a mature individual animal (the nematode C. elegans). This is a groundbreaking research achievement made possible by an interdisciplinary fusion that transcends the boundaries of quantum physics, nanochemistry, and physiology.

These research results were published in "Science Advances" on Saturday, September 12, 2020, at 3:00 a.m. (JST).

Please see below for the full press release.

Press Release (PDF)