Nine Diagnostics co-founders Daniel Heller, PhD and Mijin Kim, PhD are contributing to the ARPA-H LIGHT program (Lymphatic Imaging, Genomics, and pHenotyping Technologies), participating in their institutional capacities at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Georgia Institute of Technology respectively. Their contributions are part of the LANTERN project (Lymphatic disease Advancements with Nanotechnology, Translational Epigenetics, and Research in Genetics), led by principal investigator Dr. Lishomwa Ndhlovu at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Announced January 20, 2026, the LANTERN project received a $5.2 million initial two-year award from ARPA-H, part of a historic investment of up to $135.7 million over five years across eleven research teams selected for the LIGHT program. The program is led by ARPA-H Program Manager Kimberley Steele, MD, PhD, and targets the lymphatic system as a critically undercharacterized component of human biology with significant implications for disease progression, immune function, and treatment response.
The lymphatic system is a network of vessels, nodes, and organs that drains excess fluid from tissues, supports immune function, and plays a key role in cancer metastasis and inflammatory disease. Despite its clinical importance, the system has remained poorly characterized compared to other biological systems, with limited tools available for early detection and molecular quantification. Its vessels are tiny, translucent, and carry fluid that moves slowly, making imaging and molecular characterization exceptionally difficult with existing methods.
LANTERN addresses this gap by developing a comprehensive diagnostic platform that integrates AI-enabled biomarker technologies, high-resolution photoacoustic imaging, and multimodal genetic and epigenetic predictors. Dr. Heller and Dr. Kim’s contributions focus on the nanosensor and AI components, developing advanced detection technologies that generate molecular fingerprints of lymphatic disease states. Additional collaborators include Dr. Babak Mehrara at MSKCC and Dr. Stanley Rockson at Stanford Medicine.
For Nine Diagnostics, this work carries direct scientific and strategic relevance. The nanosensor and AI-driven molecular fingerprinting approaches being developed under LANTERN are closely related to the foundational technology underpinning the company’s AI-enabled multi-omic nanosensor platform. Successful validation of these methods in the lymphatic disease context contributes to broader de-risking of the platform’s core capabilities and demonstrates the generalizability of the nanosensor approach across disease areas and biological systems.
Read the full program announcement from ARPA-H and the project announcement from Weill Cornell Medicine.
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.