$21 million is allocated to UChicago to establish a centre for quantum engineering and health.
Berggren Centre
The Berggren Centre for Quantum Biology and Medicine at the University of Chicago will launch an ambitious research project. Philanthropist Thea Berggren donated £16.7 million ($21 million) to this groundbreaking endeavour, announced on June 5, 2025. In order to change the future of medicine, the centre is well-positioned to create a new discipline that blends biological research with quantum technology.
By using quantum engineering, which can make the most delicate measurements known to science, the Berggren Centre is a daring attempt to see into the human body in previously unheard-of ways. Unlocking previously unreachable insights into biology and illness is the main objective, opening the door to ground-breaking new treatments and diagnostics.
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“The founding of the Berggren Centre is a testament to a strong belief: that the most profound scientific discoveries frequently arise when we combine disparate fields in daring new ways,” stated Paul Alivisatos, president of the University of Chicago. By fusing medicine with quantum engineering, the center’s work has the potential to revolutionise how we think about health and illness, he continued.
With its location in the esteemed UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME), the centre will capitalise on the University’s notable advantages in clinical care, biomedical research, and quantum science. Nadya Mason, the dean of UChicago PME, emphasised the center’s function in uniting academics from other departments within the university to establish a new standard for patient care. Her sincere appreciation was directed towards Thea Berggren for her innovative commitment to human health.
A new generation of “bilingual scholars” who are proficient in both quantum physics and biomedical research is to be fostered by the Berggren Centre, which was established with two main goals in mind:
- To promote the creation of ground-breaking quantum tools for biomedical applications.
- Scientists and engineers, these scholars will be able to convert quantum advancements into practical solutions.
To create an international community around quantum biology and medicine, the generous donation will support workshops for these multidisciplinary researchers, fund fellowships for their training, and host conferences. This pledge covers both funding for ongoing assistance and endowment funds for long-term sustainability.
This creative endeavour is already being led by UChicago scholars. Professor Alexander T. Pearson, Assistant Professor Peter Maurer, and Professor Aaron Esser-Kahn of Immunoengineering, for instance, are working together to develop quantum-enabled IDs that can track individual immune cells in real time. Thousands of cells could be monitored at once by this technique, providing fresh perspectives on cancer and inflammation and facilitating more individualised, targeted therapy.
The center’s goal is to make sure that quantum innovations are successfully transferred from the lab bench to the patient’s bedside. Using UChicago Medicine’s capabilities in clinical care and biomedical research, this will be accomplished. According to Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs Mark Anderson, the centre will also support cutting-edge educational initiatives, including a pathway centred on quantum for aspiring and practising physician-scientists, to develop a workforce capable of diagnosing and treating illnesses in new ways.
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The Berggren Centre will be co-directed by Julian Solway, a professor of medicine and the founding head of the Institute for Translational Medicine, and Greg Engel, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and at UChicago PME. Engel and Solway have previously worked together through the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Quantum Sensing for Biophysics and Bioengineering (QuBBE), which seeks to create quantum imaging instruments that go beyond the bounds of classical approaches. With a particular emphasis on increasing clinical effect, the new centre will expand on this basis.
“It’s no easy task to integrate quantum physics and medicine, but it leads to tools and discoveries we never imagined possible,” Engel, whose work focusses on novel approaches to monitor, quantify, and manipulate quantum dynamics, said. In order to better human health, he thinks this gift will help bring together two very different scientific cultures. According to Solway, who has devoted his professional life to creating cooperative structures that would speed up medical research, the Berggren Centre is the next step forward in translational science. Quantum physicists, engineers, and physicians are collaborating to develop a new scientific language that could revolutionise our understanding and management of illness.
When Berggren visited the Atacama Desert, the idea for his present came to him. As she talked to astronomers who were motivated by the idea that quantum mechanics might help shape our future knowledge of the universe, she wondered about another possibility: What if the same quantum concepts were used to explain cellular physiology and disease? Berggren identified the University of Chicago as the perfect location to realise this ambition, calling the potential to revolutionise medicine “extraordinary.”
Although biological systems have historically been believed to disturb delicate quantum states in warm, loud settings, new research indicates that biological entities may potentially take advantage of quantum processes. The center’s research will investigate these possibilities in an effort to find new quantum-biological mechanisms that may be altered to provide therapeutic effects.
A worldwide understanding that the intersection of quantum science and health is a crucial area for 21st-century research is in line with the lofty objectives of the Berggren Centre. By fusing basic biological enquiries with quantum-enabled technology, UChicago hopes to empower researchers and clinicians, resulting in more accurate medicines, earlier disease detection, and ultimately, revolutionary patient care.
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The Berggren Center’s founding represents a turning point in the fusion of medicine and physics. The centre will host quantum-enabled therapeutic discoveries thanks to inventive philanthropy, cutting-edge expertise, and strong institutional backing. By emphasising multidisciplinary interaction, training, and clinical translation, it establishes a new framework for bringing together scientific fields to address health challenges and ushers in quantum mechanical precision medicine.
The Berggren Centre is currently making preparations for the next autumn term and is anticipated to open immediately.
