Nobel Laureate John Clarke Advances Quantum Sensing Research at NTNU, Driving New Biomedical Applications
NTNU Chair Professor John Clarke has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for his pioneering contributions to quantum sensing and superconducting electronics. His long-term collaboration with NTNU’s Graduate Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering has helped translate frontier quantum technologies into biomedical tools, including a blood-based diagnostic test for dementia now in clinical use.
Clarke’s recognition also highlights the sustained research capacity of NTNU’s electro-optical team, which has expanded superconducting quantum technologies into medical imaging, brain science, and international research partnerships. He expressed appreciation to NTNU for the support extended to him over many years.
A Nobel Prize Rooted in Decades of Quantum Research
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics on October 7, honoring three scientists who made a foundational quantum-mechanical discovery at the University of California, Berkeley forty years ago. At that time, Clarke was a professor, Michel H. Devoret a postdoctoral researcher, and John M. Martinis a doctoral student. Their work opened new directions in quantum science.
Clarke later became widely known as the “King of SQUIDs,” or superconducting quantum interference devices, that remain the most sensitive magnetic sensors available and hold significance for both basic physics and medical diagnostics.
Collaboration Between Clarke and NTNU
Among leading SQUID research groups worldwide, Clarke’s UC Berkeley team and the NTNU research group led by Hung-En Hung and Hong-Chang Yang of National Taiwan University have been especially prominent. Clarke served as Chair Professor at NTNU from 2012 to 2017, engaging in sustained collaboration and helping organize the 2013 East Asia Workshop on Superconducting Electronics at NTNU’s Gongguan Campus, the largest event of its kind.
He also demonstrated that liquid-helium-cooled SQUID sensors can enable nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) under magnetic fields comparable to Earth’s field far below the strengths used in clinical MRI.
Expanding Medical Imaging with Low- and High-Temperature SQUIDs
Within NTNU’s electro-optical team, Jen-Jie Chieh proposed a “transfer-coil architecture” that enabled a new sensing design for liquid-nitrogen-cooled (high-temperature) SQUIDs. Building on this work, Shu-Hsien Liao developed a compact, low-cost, high-sensitivity high-temperature SQUID-based NMR/MRI system suitable for rapid intraoperative pathology assessment. The system performed strongly in clinical trials at National Taiwan University Hospital and was featured on the cover of Applied Physics Letters.
IMR Technology: A Platform for Sensitive Biomedical Testing
A major achievement of NTNU’s program is Chair Professor Herng-Er Horng’s ImmunoMagnetic Reduction (IMR) technology. IMR uses magnetic nanoparticles that bind rapidly and specifically to biomolecules or nucleic acids, enabling highly sensitive detection in medicine, agriculture, and genetic engineering. When combined with Hsieh’s high-temperature SQUID system, IMR can achieve parts-per-trillion sensitivity well beyond conventional detection limits.
This capability has made early blood-based detection of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, possible.
From Laboratory Innovation to Clinical Practice
Shieh-Yueh Yang, CEO of MagQu Co., Ltd. and a former member of the NTNU team, led efforts to commercialize IMR-SQUID technology. After receiving certification from Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration, the test became available as a self-paid clinical service in major hospitals. Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, has adopted the technology as an analytical tool in dementia drug-development trials. The system is now in the final stages of U.S. FDA review.
Advancing Brain Science Through MEG and MCG
Clarke has also contributed to NTNU’s research in magnetoencephalography (MEG) and magnetocardiography (MCG) conducted at National Taiwan University Hospital. Both systems rely on liquid-helium-cooled SQUID sensors that provide higher sensitivity and resolution than standard EEG and ECG instruments. Clarke later assisted NTNU’s Brain Science Research Center in expanding MEG applications across cognitive science, sensory neuroscience, and psychology, strengthening NTNU’s international visibility in brain research.
Connecting NTNU to European Quantum Research Networks
The achievements of NTNU’s electro-optical team led to a multi-year Memorandum of Understanding with Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, one of Europe’s leading research institutions and a partner in Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council “Thousand-Talents Program.” NTNU is currently the only Taiwanese university in formal collaboration with Jülich.
The partnership is anchored in the Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI), named for the 2007 Nobel laureate whose discovery of giant magnetoresistance reshaped data-storage technology. The collaboration signals convergence between NTNU’s research strengths and major European quantum-science initiatives.
From Quantum Foundations to Biomedical Impact
Clarke’s UC Berkeley team made a key advance by sensing macroscopic particle systems capable of overcoming the Josephson-junction energy barrier. NTNU’s electro-optical team has extended SQUID-based technologies, built around the same Josephson-junction structure, into biomedical diagnostics, establishing a new testing paradigm with implications for public health.
The work strengthens the biomedical relevance of Clarke’s Nobel-recognized contributions and demonstrates how fundamental quantum research can evolve into practical tools for major global health challenges.