Barnes Research Group

Research

Background & History

Professor Frank S. Barnes is the founding Principal Investigator of the Barnes Research Group at the University of Colorado Boulder, where his research program has run continuously since 1959. He worked on the design of lasers and laser surgery in the early 1960s and studied the effects of microwave pulses on biological systems beginning in 1975. He was involved in the second epidemiology study of the effects of power lines on childhood leukemia and has been interested in understanding how weak electric and magnetic fields can be sensed by biological systems ever since. He and his students have shown that they can modify the growth of cancer cells by reducing the static magnetic field from 45μT to less than 1μT [Martino et al., 2010], and in a paper with Ben Greenebaum they provide a theoretical foundation for showing how weak magnetic fields could modify the recombination rates of radical pairs and concentrations of radicals in biological systems [Barnes and Greenebaum, 2015].

He has also been involved in evaluating energy storage systems for use in integrating renewable energy into the grid. He and his students have built lasers, flash lamps, superconductors, avalanche photodiodes and other electron devices, and have worked on the effects of electric and magnetic fields on biology and energy storage systems.

Professor Barnes received the 2020 D'Arsonval Award — the Bioelectromagnetics Society's highest honor — and a Doctor of Science Honoris Causa from the University of Guelph, Canada, in 2010. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering (2001) and a recipient of the NAE's Bernard Gordon Prize (2004) for innovation in engineering education.

Cells

EMF & Cancer Cell Biology

A central focus of the group is understanding how static and alternating magnetic fields can alter the growth rates of cancer cells. We have demonstrated that reducing the static magnetic field from ambient levels (~45μT) to near-zero (<1μT) produces measurable changes in cancer cell proliferation — a finding with potential implications for non-invasive cancer treatment strategies. This work builds on earlier epidemiological studies of power line exposure and childhood leukemia, and connects to broader questions about how biological systems sense and respond to their electromagnetic environment.

Current investigations extend this work into hypomagnetic and zero-gravity field implications on cell behavior.

Radical Pairs & Weak Field Sensing

A second line of research investigates the theoretical and experimental basis for how weak magnetic fields influence radical pair recombination rates in biological systems. Radical pairs — short-lived pairs of molecules with unpaired electrons — are sensitive to magnetic fields at surprisingly low intensities, making them a plausible mechanism by which living systems detect electromagnetic fields. Our theoretical work with Ben Greenebaum provides a foundation for understanding how field-induced changes in radical pair dynamics could alter radical concentrations in cells, with relevance to both safety assessment and therapeutic applications.

Radio waves
Equipment Photo

Radiofrequency Fields & Biological Safety

The group has long been engaged with questions about the biological effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, including those emitted by cell phones and wireless communication infrastructure. This work is of particular relevance to public health and safety standards, and connects to fundamental questions about how RF energy is absorbed and transduced by biological tissue. Professor Barnes' involvement in this area dates to early studies of microwave pulse effects on biological systems in the 1970s.

Research Trajectory

The group's history shows continuity of method across several technical domains. Capabilities in precision measurement, controlled-exposure hardware, and device physics developed in the group's earlier decades now underpin its current work in bioelectromagnetics and quantum biology.

Lasers, Optoelectronics & Photonics (1960s–1980s)

  • Rare-gas flashlamps and pumping efficiencies for neodymium lasers (IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, 1969)
  • Laser micro-irradiation of cellular structures, including selective thermal damage to mitochondria (Photochemistry and Photobiology, 1970)
  • Foundations of laser applications in surgery, including ophthalmic and dental procedures, and holographic microscopy
  • Semiconductor and optoelectronic device work, including thin-film conductivity, avalanche photodiodes, and microlenses on single-mode optical fibers (Applied Optics, 1985)

Early Bioeffects & Epidemiology (1970s–1990s)

  • Ultrastructural membrane damage in neuroblastoma cells from short microwave pulses
  • Cell-membrane temperature-rate sensitivity modeled from the Nernst equation (Bioelectromagnetics, 1984)
  • Contribution to the second epidemiological study of residential power-line fields and childhood leukemia, including the wiring-configuration coding method known as the Denver wire code
  • Engineering models for the interaction of electric and magnetic fields with biological systems (Bioelectromagnetics, 1992)

Exposure Methodology & Reproducibility (2000s–2010s)

  • Effects of pulsed electromagnetic fields on osteoblast-like SaOS-2 cells and on endothelial cells
  • Reduction of the Earth's magnetic field inhibits growth rates of model cancer cell lines — from 45μT down to less than 1μT (Bioelectromagnetics, 2010)
  • Reduced background magnetic field inhibits the ability of Drosophila melanogaster to survive ionizing radiation (2012)
  • Identification of inhomogeneous background magnetic fields in biological incubators as a confounder for experimental reproducibility (2013), establishing a methodological standard for controlled-exposure biology

Quantum Biology & the Radical-Pair Mechanism (2014–present)

Since 2014 the group has concentrated on the quantum-mechanical basis of these responses, developing and testing the radical-pair mechanism as the link between magnetic fields, chemical reaction rates, reactive oxygen species, and cell proliferation — placing the group among the founding contributors to the field now known as quantum biology.

  • Publication of The Effects of Weak Magnetic Fields on Radical Pairs (Barnes and Greenebaum, Bioelectromagnetics, 2015), recognized at BIOEM 2019 as the most influential paper in the journal over the preceding five years
  • Demonstration that weak magnetic fields alter stem-cell-mediated growth (Huizen, Beane, Barnes et al., Science Advances, 2019), linking radical-pair physics to a live-organism regeneration model
  • Analysis of time delays in biological feedback systems under electromagnetic exposure (Barnes and Kandala, 2018)
  • A sustained program, led by Dr. Hakki Gurhan, showing that weak static and radiofrequency magnetic fields accelerate or inhibit the growth of HT-1080 human fibrosarcoma cells and modulate reactive oxygen species, intracellular pH, membrane potential, and mitochondrial calcium (Bioelectromagnetics, 2021; Scientific Reports, 2023; Antioxidants, 2024)
  • Demonstration, with collaborators at the University of Žilina, that the proliferation rate of fibrosarcoma cells can be tuned by weak static and extremely-low-frequency fields near specific resonance frequencies, consistent with a nuclear-spin coupling mechanism (Bajtoš, Dang et al., Frontiers in Public Health, 2025)
  • Development of a standardized static-field exposure apparatus for aqueous and cell-culture systems, giving the research community a documented method where no consensus standard previously existed

Space Biology & Hypomagnetic Environments (recent)

We're extending our weak-field expertise to deep-space radiation biology — reviewing the biological impacts of hypomagnetic fields in the space environment and what that means for providing artificial magnetic fields during long-duration spaceflight.