The University of Oxford is to lead a new, ambitious project backed by a major £6 million grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). This aims to better understand how animals sense Earth's magnetic field and apply this knowledge to engineer novel tools with potential biomedical uses.
Our project seeks to elucidate the fundamental principles that govern the light-dependent animal magnetosense, and to explore how we might exploit the underlying mechanisms to engineer technologies in biomedicine.
Professor Christiane Timmel , Department of Chemistry
The 'Quantum sensing in nature and synthetic biology' project is funded through BBSRC's Strategic Longer and Larger (sLoLa) grants scheme , which supports curiosity-driven research that has the potential to transform our understanding of biology and spark innovation across sectors. It will be led by Professor Christiane Timmel from Oxford's Department of Chemistry, and involve a cross-disciplinary team of researchers from the University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, and University of St Andrews.
Professor Timmel said: 'The annual migration of many animals over vast distances represents one of the most impressive of nature's spectacles. In addition to visual cues including the sun and stars, the evidence is clear that many of these expert navigators sense and use the Earth's magnetic field on their journey. Our project seeks to elucidate the fundamental principles that govern this animal magnetosense, and to explore how we might engineer this property for new technologies in biomedicine.'
Quite how a living creature senses a weak magnetic field is far from obvious. A leading hypothesis is rooted in quantum biology, and based on a protein called cryptochrome located in the animal's eye. When this protein absorbs light, two 'radicals' are formed. These short-lived species each contain an unpaired electron and therefore possess a property called 'spin,' which is sensitive to magnetic fields.
The Oxford team: Mark Hankins, Kevin Henbest, Madhavi Krishnan, Harrison Steel, Andrew Baldwin, Justin Benesch, Christiane Timmel, Chris Schofield, Achillefs Kapanidis, Stuart Mackenzie, Stuart Peirson, Sabine Huth-Rauschenbach. Photo credit: Thomas Player, University of Oxford.It is thought that the strength and direction of the magnetic field influences onward reactions involving these radicals, and they ultimately trigger signalling cascades and a nerve signal. In this sense, the animal would 'see' the magnetic field. Yet, while both animal behaviour and spectroscopic studies provide strong support for this quantum biology mechanism, there is currently very little insight into the magnetic signalling cascade between the quantum step and the animal's response.
Long-term investments through our sLoLa scheme brings researchers with different expertise together to collaboratively pursue questions whose answers may reshape our understanding of the living world.
Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith, BBSRC Executive Chair
The new project will use an interdisciplinary approach to obtain a holistic understanding of the magnetic sense, from the first appearance of a magnetic effect on the cryptochrome's radicals to the neural activity and behaviour of living mice. The research team will investigate a diverse range of cryptochromes - from plants to insects and birds to mammals - in order to identify similarities and key differences in the transduction pathway, and explore the engineering of analogous magnetic responses in model proteins. The programme's outcomes will thus include a detailed understanding of the origins of the animal magnetosense, and pioneering developments of technologies driven by magnetic fields.
Professor Timmel added: 'The magnetosense stands among nature's most captivating and elusive "rules of life." By bringing together an extraordinary team of engineers, physicists, chemists, biochemists, and neuroscientists, this sLoLa initiative offers a unique opportunity to tackle this formidable task of shedding light on one of nature's best kept secrets-and to turn that discovery into powerful new biotechnologies.'
Further information about the BBSRC 2025 sLoLa grants can be found on the BBSRC website .
