Drug developers and biomedical researchers now have a powerful new tool at their disposal, thanks to High Q Technologies. The University of Waterloo spinoff, launched in 2013, has developed the world’s first quantum-enabled electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometer.
EPR spectroscopy has been used for decades to investigate large biological molecules like proteins, DNA or RNA. EPR can help pharmaceutical companies develop better drugs by revealing the structure and function of certain proteins. Or it can give scientists insights into aggregation processes linked to diseases like Alzheimer’s.
But until now, EPR spectroscopy has been restricted to small-scale projects requiring highly trained researchers. “The technology was too opaque and too difficult to use. It wasn’t fast enough and it wasn’t robust enough for industrial applications,” says Troy Borneman, High Q’s principal scientist.
Incorporating a superconducting quantum sensor — technology Borneman helped developed as a post-doc at the Institute for Quantum Computing — enabled High Q to create an EPR spectrometer that’s spectacularly sensitive, enabling automated nanometre-scale distance measurements that reveal local biomolecular structure.
The use of a quantum sensor makes the system much faster, more compact, more stable, and easier to use. “You don’t need specialized PhDs to do this,” Borneman says. “By utilizing a quantum sensor we were able to design a better product.”
It’s just one of the quantum devices that has emerged from the University of Waterloo’s Transformative Quantum Technologies (TQT) initiative, headed up by chemist David Cory.
Commercializing quantum science
Quantum technologies can produce impressive results by taking advantage of the laws of quantum mechanics that govern the behaviour of particles at the smallest scale.
Harnessing quantum effects could dramatically improve the efficiency of classical computation, resulting in laptop batteries that last hundreds of times longer, for example, or computers that are hundreds of times faster. “We want to find those places where connecting to quantum makes a large difference,” Cory says.
To uncover those possibilities, TQT provides tools for every stage of the innovation cycle — helping translate quantum science into commercial devices and keeping Canada at the forefront of a transformative field. Impacts are already providing new approaches to health, environmental issues and fundamental physics.
TQT provides quantum simulators that allow investigators to model their ideas before building anything.
It offers equipment to develop and characterize new materials with special quantum properties that enable everything from ultra-secure communication to extraordinarily precise measurements. And it has tools to fabricate prototypes made of those materials — and then test them before bringing them to market.
By making that suite of equipment available to users from many different academic disciplines and industrial sectors, TQT fosters a highly collaborative environment. “There’s a chance for cross-fertilization that you don’t get if you stay in your own narrow lab,” Cory explains.
Unlocking quantum advantages
According to Borneman, having access to the CFI-funded equipment at TQT — and its sister facility, the Quantum-Nano Fabrication and Characterization Facility — allows High Q to fabricate their own quantum devices rather than outsourcing the work.
That significant competitive advantage accelerated the lengthy commercialization process, allowing them to make their first sale in 2025.
Borneman sees a bright future both for his company and for quantum technology more broadly, with the first wave of quantum devices like their EPR spectrometer now becoming available to users in a variety of fields.
“To me, that’s the most exciting thing,” he says. “Getting this technology accessible and in the hands of people who can make a difference with it.”
The research project featured in this story also benefits from funding from the Canada Excellence Research Chairs program, and the Canada First Research Excellence Fund and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
