In June 2022, Mijin Kim, PhD, then a postdoctoral researcher in the Cancer Nanomedicine Lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, was named to MIT Technology Review‘s 2022 Innovators Under 35 list in the Biotech category, recognized for developing an AI-enabled nanosensor platform capable of detecting ovarian cancer from blood.
MIT Technology Review‘s annual Innovators Under 35 list recognizes exceptional young scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs whose discoveries are shaping the future of technology. Kim was selected for her role in developing carbon nanotube nanosensor arrays that, combined with machine learning, could distinguish serum samples from patients with high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma from those with other conditions, at a level exceeding conventional blood-based biomarkers. Reflecting on the broader potential of the platform, Kim said: “This method could be rapidly adapted to the detection of many conditions. The array could be used to train an algorithm to recognize nearly any disease when given enough data from the sensor.”
The approach draws on arrays of carbon nanotube sensors, each presenting a distinct surface chemistry, that together generate composite fluorescence fingerprints which machine learning algorithms interpret as disease signatures. Rather than targeting a single known biomarker, the platform reads a pattern across the entire array, an architecture designed to generalize across diseases and conditions without prior knowledge of which specific proteins or metabolites to measure.
The research recognized by MIT Technology Review forms the scientific foundation of Nine Diagnostics, which Kim co-founded in 2024 alongside Daniel A. Heller, PhD, and Freddy T. Nguyen, MD, PhD. Read the full profile at technologyreview.com/innovator/mijin-kim.
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.