Quantum sensing proteins

Scoping cryptochromes and engineered flavoproteins as magnetic sensors

AI Gene Review · projects/QUANTUM_SENSING · scoping · 2026

Bottom line

  • The best-supported quantum sensor is the radical-pair compass in cryptochromes: light-made spin pairs whose chemistry feels weak magnetic fields.
  • From one deep-research report we shortlisted 5 proteins (robin CRY4, monarch CRY1, human CRY2, fly CRY, MagLOV) and 5 chassis, and flagged contested areas.
  • Scoped, not started as a native-robin / monarch / MagLOV review set; existing fly and Arabidopsis CRY reviews keep magnetoreception as non-core.

How the compass is thought to work

Mechanisms and their GO terms

Open scoping questions

  • Biological sensor (behaviour, cell signalling) or an in vitro spin-chemistry module?
  • Geomagnetic-field sensing only, or broader coherence and tunnelling effects?
  • Which chassis: purified protein, yeast or mammalian cells, insect cells, plants, or magnetotactic bacteria?
  • Treat fly behaviour and vibrational olfaction as contested; photosynthetic coherence is energy transfer, not sensing.

Status and next steps

  • ✅ Deep-research synthesis, candidate shortlist, chassis options (Jan 2026).
  • ⬜ Triage pipeline described on the page is not in the repo (projects/quantum-sensing-bioinformatics/).
  • ⬜ Triage robin CRY4 and monarch CRY1 accessions; decide whether engineered MagLOV constructs belong in a gene-review project.
  • ⬜ Reassess fly and plant CRY magnetoreception rows before treating them as more than contested, non-core outputs.
  • Side note in the folder: LIGHT_SOURCE_OPEN_DATASETS.md (open X-ray datasets), unrelated to the review.

Read more: projects/QUANTUM_SENSING.md