Image created by Dr. Michael J. Miller
Detecting bacterial growth quickly is vital for healthcare, food safety, and environmental monitoring, but current methods often struggle with noise and require lengthy incubation periods. Rayssa B. de Andrade, Anne Egholm Høgh, and colleagues from the Technical University of Denmark, alongside Gaetana Spedalieri, Stefano Pirandola, and Kirstine Berg-Sørensen from the University of York, now demonstrate a significant advance in this field. The team achieves earlier bacterial detection by employing a quantum-enhanced photometric measurement, utilising squeezed light to monitor bacterial cultures. This innovative approach surpasses the limitations of traditional methods, identifying the onset of growth up to 30 minutes sooner and offering a pathway to faster, more sensitive, and non-invasive diagnostic tools for a range of biological applications.
Squeezed Light Enhances Bacterial Detection Sensitivity
This research demonstrates a significant advancement in bacterial detection through the application of quantum-enhanced photometry. Scientists achieved bacterial growth identification up to 30 minutes earlier than with conventional methods, by utilizing squeezed light to monitor optical absorbance in an Escherichia coli culture. This improvement stems from surpassing the limitations imposed by shot noise, a fundamental barrier in classical optical measurements. The team validated these findings through rigorous statistical modelling and hypothesis testing, confirming earlier detection with minimal false alarm rates., The method involves monitoring changes in light absorption as bacteria grow, but crucially, it uses a special state of light called squeezed light to reduce noise and improve sensitivity.
By reducing this noise, the quantum approach allows for more precise measurements and earlier detection of bacterial growth, offering a pathway to faster, more sensitive, and non-invasive diagnostic tools for a range of biological applications. This achievement establishes a clear advantage for quantum techniques in biological sensing, where non-invasive operation is paramount., Researchers envision extending this technique to discriminate between different bacterial species or strains, and integrating it into portable devices for wider application. Future work could focus on adapting the method for detecting low concentrations of pathogens, monitoring changes in biological samples, or improving real-time diagnostics in microfluidic devices. This could lead to faster and more accurate diagnoses of infections, improved food safety monitoring, and more effective environmental surveillance.,.
Quantum Sensing Accelerates Bacterial Growth Detection
Detecting bacterial growth quickly is crucial for healthcare, food safety, and environmental monitoring, but current methods often struggle with noise and require lengthy incubation periods. The team achieves this by employing a quantum-enhanced photometric measurement, utilising squeezed light to monitor bacterial cultures. This innovative technique surpasses the limitations of traditional methods, offering a pathway to faster, more sensitive, and non-invasive diagnostic tools.
For more information:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.12057
Rapid detection of bacterial growth is crucial in clinical, food safety, and environmental contexts, yet conventional optical methods are limited by noise and require hours of incubation. Here, we present the first experimental demonstration of a quantum-enhanced photometric measurement for early bacterial detection using squeezed light. By monitoring the optical absorbance of an Escherichia coli culture with a quantum probe, we achieve a sensitivity beyond the shot-noise limit, enabling identification of growth onset up to 30 minutes earlier than with a classical sensor. The noise reduction is validated through statistical modeling with a truncated Gaussian distribution and hypothesis testing, confirming earlier detection with low false-alarm rates. This work illustrates how quantum resources can improve real-time, non-invasive diagnostics. Our results pave the way for quantum-enhanced biosensors that accelerate detection of microbial growth and other biological processes without increasing photodamage.