In 2021, researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center published a study in Science Advances introducing a perception-based nanosensor platform for detecting cancer biomarkers, establishing an early proof of concept for multi-sensor molecular fingerprinting of disease from biological samples.
The study, led by senior author Daniel A. Heller, PhD, described an array of single-walled carbon nanotube sensors, each functionalized with distinct surface chemistries, capable of generating composite fluorescence fingerprints from biological samples enriched with cancer biomarkers. The approach draws conceptual inspiration from biological perception systems, particularly the mammalian olfactory system, in which no single receptor identifies a specific molecule but the pattern of responses across many receptors together encodes identity. Applied to cancer detection, no single nanotube in the array identifies the disease; the machine learning algorithm reads the pattern across the entire array to distinguish cancer from non-cancer conditions.
The significance of the architecture lies in what it does not require. Conventional cancer blood tests measure one or a small number of known biomarkers, constrained by the specificity and sensitivity of individual markers and by the requirement that those markers be defined in advance. The perception-based design instead treats the biological sample as a complex signal to be read holistically, with the sensor array functioning as a molecular antenna sensitive to the aggregate composition of the sample. This shift from targeted measurement to pattern recognition represents a fundamental conceptual advance in how nanosensor platforms approach disease detection.
The perception-based nanosensor architecture described in this study forms the scientific foundation of Nine Diagnostics, co-founded in 2024 by Daniel A. Heller, PhD, Mijin Kim, PhD, and Freddy T. Nguyen, MD, PhD. Read the paper.
About Nine Diagnostics
Nine Diagnostics is an AI-enabled multi-omic nanosensor company advancing precision medicine. The platform simultaneously captures proteomic, metabolomic, and lipidomic signals alongside patient clinical context to generate a multi-omic fingerprint, using machine learning to identify disease-relevant patterns without requiring prior knowledge of which biomarkers matter. This enables pre-treatment patient stratification, on-treatment response monitoring, and post-treatment minimal residual disease detection. Founded by Freddy T. Nguyen, MD, PhD (CEO), Daniel A. Heller, PhD (CSO), and Mijin Kim, PhD (Scientific Advisor), Nine Diagnostics is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.