Jingjing Xu

Project title

TexQuantum Insects: Unraveling a Protein-based Magnetic Compass in Insects for Navigation

What is your project about?

My project is about how tiny night-migratory insects find their way over long distances, sometimes more than 1000 kilometers, using the Earth’s weak magnetic field. My collaborators and I recently discovered that Australian bogong moths use a magnetic compass to orient their migratory direction. I now aim to find out how the insects sense the Earth’s magnetic field at the molecular level. In particular, my research group will produce candidate magentic sensing proteins in the laborotary and characterize magnetic sensitivity of the proteins using various biophysical methods such as quantum diamond sensors. The aim is to advance insect magnetoreception research from behaviour to molecular mechanism.

How did you become interested in your particular field of research?

My interest in magnetoreception began during my early sutdy of migratory argriculture pests, which I often observed every spring and autumn around my grandparents’ farms in rural China. This interest grew through my PhD research on night-migratory birds in the world-leading magnetoreception research group led by Prof. Henrik Mouritsen in Oldenburg, Germany. I was fascinated by the idea that animals may use quantum-level spin chemistry to solve a real biological problem: finding direction across continents. This project brings together my early curiosity about insects and my later research training in bird magnetoreception, protein biochemistry and biophysics.

What are the scientific challenges and perspectives in your project?

The main challenge is to connect a very weak physical stimulus, the Earth’s magnetic field, to measurable biochemical events inside a protein. I take the challenges to produce functional insect magnetic sensing proteins, detect flavin binding and radical-pair dynamics, and distinguish true magnetic field effects from light effects and cellular background signals. These challenge and risks are worth taking as the potential outcomes will be enormorous. If successful, the project will pave the way for the ultimate functional validation of a quantum compass mechanism in animals.

What is your estimate of the impact, which your project may have to society in the long term?

The long term impact of my project is broad and versatile. First, it will advance our understanding of quantum effects in biological systems. It is fascinating to ask how nature has evolved an incredible system that allows quantum effects in a wet, warm, noisy cellular enviroment. Second, the knowledge of animal magnetoreception and navigation mechanism is not only fascinating. It may also guide conservation efforts for migratory and endangered species facing an uncertain future. As the climate changes, even resident species may be forced to move. However, many such re-introduction programs fail because the animals are moved away from their intended locations. A better understanding of the animal navigation could help us design more informed conservation strategies for migratory and endangered species. Third, magnetically sensitive proteins that are investigated in this project may serve as a model for future protein design towards magnetically controllable drug carriers in targeted drug delivery systems or non-invisible neuronal manipulations in magnetogenetics. Finally, the knowledges of animals’ natural magnetic compass could inspire next-navigation technologies that do not depend on GPS, which is vulnerable to disruption. The project therefore links fundamental biology with future perspectives in quantum biology, animal conservation, biomedicine and biotechnology.

Which impact do you expect the Sapere Aude programme will have on your career as a researcher?

Receiving the Sapere Aude grant is a defining moment for my career. I have recently started as a tenure-track assistant professor and DIAS Fellow at the University of Southern Denmark. The Sapere Aude grant comes at a timely moment, allows me to recruit a PhD student and a postdoc, build a interdisciplinary and coherent team, and establish my independent research. It would give me the resources to move from promising early independence to a stable, international visible research group, positioning me for future ERC funding and long-term leadership in quantum biology, sensory biology and animal navigation.