Uri Zvi

Graduate Student

About Uri

Originally from Israel, Uri started his academic journey at Highline Community College in WA state after running a retail business for several years. In 2016, he transferred to the University of WA in Seattle as a Martin Honors scholar, completing a bachelor in Bioengineering and performing research focused on low-resource-settings diagnostics based on photonic microring resonators.

While in Seattle, Uri became passionate about climbing beautiful mountains and playing speed chess. Uri also enjoys various entrepreneurial endeavors and promoting social justice causes. He served for several years on the board of an organization focused on promoting Middle East peace through dialog and education. Upon graduating cum laude in 2018, Uri traveled to the University of Chicago to start his PhD studies in molecular engineering.

At UChicago, Uri made a major shift to research at the interface of quantum science and biology. Uri is co-advised by the Esser-Kahn and the Maurer labs.

Education

BS, Biomedical Engineering, University of Washington; Seattle (2018)

Advisor: Professor Daniel Ratner

Uri's Research

At UChicago, Uri is co-advised at the Esser-Kahn and Maurer labs, researching the unique applications of quantum technology in biological systems. Overall, Uri is aiming to develop and improve quantum biosensors for control and manipulation of cellular processes with nanoscale resolution. This effort includes:

Improving surface functionalization and subcellular targeting techniques of nanodiamonds for their utilization as intracellular quantum sensors
Developing models, investigating, and manipulating diamond surface properties to achieve improved sensing sensitivity (imporved coherence) and develop new sensing modalities
Exploring relevant and exciting biological questions that can be uniquely addressed with quantum biosensing, like monitoring and manipulating heat shock response on a subcellular level, and detecting subcellular metabolites concentrations
Engineering and discovering new molecular qubits with the potential to revolutionize the quantum biosensing field

In the future, these tools will help us to detect, control, and even prevent pathological events in the cellular level.

Lab Publications

Engineering Spin Coherence in Core-Shell Diamond Nanocrystals Uri Zvi, Adam Weiss, Denis Candido, Aidan Jones, Michael Flatté, Peter Maurer, Aaron Esser-Kahn, Iryna Golovina, Lingjie Chen Bulletin of the American Physical Society 2023
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2305.03075