  Recent advances in the spectroscopy of biomolecules have highlighted the
possibility of quantum coherence playing an active role in biological energy
transport. The revelation that quantum coherence can survive in the hot and wet
environment of biology has generated a lively debate across both the physics
and biology communities. In particular, it remains unclear to what extent
non-trivial quantum effects are utilised in biology and what advantage, if any,
they afford. We propose an analogue quantum simulator, based on currently
available techniques in ultra-cold atom physics, to study a model of energy and
electron transport based on the Holstein Hamiltonian By simulating the salient
aspects of a biological system in a tunable laboratory setup, we hope to gain
insight into the validity of several theoretical models of biological quantum
transport in a variety of relevant parameter regimes.
