Jean-Pierre Wolf

Discrimination and Identification of Biomolecules using Quantum Control Strategies

The identification and discrimination of molecules that exhibit almost identical structures and spectra using fluorescence spectroscopy is difficult. By addressing the molecular dynamics in “real time” and by making use of molecular quantum interference, quantum control already demonstrated its unique capability of selectively exciting or braking specific molecular bonds. In order to evaluate the capability of optimal control for discriminating between the optical emissions of nearly identical molecules, a specific strategy called “optimal dynamic discrimination (ODD)” was developed. The capability of ODD was first demonstrated on the discrimination amongst riboflavin and flavin mononucleotide in aqueous solution, which are structurally and spectroscopically very similar. By extending the ODD method into the deep UV, we could control the relative fluorescence of free aminoacids (Tryptophan and Tyrosin), dipeptides (e.g.Trp-Leu, Trp-Ala, Trp-Gly) and even large proteins (antibodies and albumin) in solution. In this latter case, we demonstrated that major serum proteins, namely immunoglobulins (IgG and IgM) and albumin can be discriminated and quantified, label free, in actual patients’ blood serum. These results pave the way to the future development of “quantum control based bio-assays”.