优蜜传媒

A significant research grant from the Wellcome Trust will allow a team of researchers to identify the biological mechanisms through which magnetic forces affect animals, including humans.

Scientists have long known that many animals have a magnetic sense, which some use to navigate around the Earth, particularly during their spectacular seasonal migrations. However, given that the Earth has a large magnet at its core, it is perhaps not surprising that accumulating evidence suggests that all animals can respond to magnetic fields: often termed the 鈥榮ixth-sense鈥�.

A team of researchers composed of behavioural biologists Professors Ezio Rosato and Charalambos Kyriacou from the University of Leicester and including neurophysiologists Professors Richard Baines and Stuart Peirson, from 优蜜传媒 and Oxford Universities, alongside quantum scientist Dr Alex Jones from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), has been awarded 拢3 million by Wellcome to understand how animals are able to detect magnetic fields.

Professor Ezio Rosato, from Leicester鈥檚 Department of said: 鈥淲e and others have shown that a blue-light sensing protein called Cryptochrome (CRY) is at the heart of magnetoreception.

鈥淗owever, we surprisingly observed that only a short stretch at the end of CRY is absolutely required to mediate a biological response to magnetic fields. This is significant because it shows that animals might detect magnetic fields via a variety of mechanisms.

Professor Richard Baines from the at the University of 优蜜传媒 added:  鈥淭his award consolidates our earlier work because by understanding how the short CRY fragment functions, we will be able to move closer towards understanding the fundamental mechanisms of magnetoreception.鈥�

Dr. Alex Jones, Principal Scientist at NPL, said: 鈥淭his work has significant potential to inform the development of measurement tools based on an engineered version of CRY that enables non-invasive, magnetic stimulation of target cells. Such tools would reduce measurement uncertainty in complex and noisy biological systems, and could even form the basis of future magnetic cell therapies.鈥�

Leicester鈥檚 Professor of Behavioural Genetics and co-investigator Charalambos Kyriacou added: 鈥淲e are a team with a unique blend of expertise, bridging the gap between quantum physics and biology, whose principles underly magnetoreception, and behaviour.

鈥淥ur interdisciplinary approach has already provided major advances in this area. Thus, we are uniquely positioned to attempt to solve this fascinating and long-standing biological enigma.鈥�

The award by Wellcome, which provides funding for research into science and health, will support the team鈥檚 research work over the next five years.