Hardware
QSense™
Counts the light.
A photon-counting sensor designed to record the faint light living tissue gives off on its own, in darkness, with no dye and no added radiation.
Research prototype
Ultra-early cancer detection
Your cells emit light.
We learned to read it.
No needle. No dye. No added radiation.
01The problem
Cancer is caught too late.
Every 60 seconds, the U.S. loses one person to cancer. Not because treatments fail, but because they start too late.
>90%
5-year survival
when caught early
~30%
5-year survival
when caught late
The problem isn't timing. It's what we can see.
GROWTH 01 / 9
Before the first change
The story begins with a few normal cells.
Scroll to watch it grow
The story begins with a few normal cells.
A single cell acquires a driver mutation: a DNA change that can give it a growth advantage.
Now we follow the altered cell’s descendants as they inherit the change and divide.
Repeated divisions build a larger cluster of related cells.
The growing cluster becomes more crowded and disorganized.
As the mass grows, oxygen can become scarce inside. Cells can send signals that encourage new blood vessels to grow.
New blood vessels grow around the mass, supplying oxygen and nutrients that support further growth.
With further changes, cells can become cancerous and grow into nearby tissue.
Roughly 1 billion cells.By then, it's been growing silently for years.
But there's a signal before there's a tumor.
02Our approach
Cancer has a light signature.
Cells emit faint light as they metabolize. In lab and animal studies, cancer cells’ light differed from comparison cells. HelioFlux is investigating whether that difference could support earlier detection.
We built the tool to read it.
We've built research prototypes and published the early findings in peer-reviewed journals. Now we're developing the clinical version.
A patient sits in a dark room for about 15 minutes.
A sensor reads the faint light coming off their body.
AI analyzes the signal.
Same visit, same day.
Two systems. One signal.
Software
LuminAI™
Reads the pattern.
Software built on a decade of cell and animal data. It reads the color and timing of the signal, not only its brightness, distinguishing healthy tissue from cancer in real time.
In development
“These sensors were inspired by technology built to detect faint light from distant stars. We pointed them at the faint light coming off the human body, and built an AI that uses it to read the state of your cells and tell healthy tissue from cancer.”
03Published researchPeer-reviewed, led by Dr. Nirosha Murugan
A foundation in published science.
Dr. Nirosha Murugan’s published work spans cell cultures, a mouse melanoma model, and exploratory measurements in healthy adults. Each study addresses a different level of evidence.
- 2018Cells in a dishCancer and non-cancer cells differed in the color of their light.Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports (opens in a new tab)
- 2020Cells and miceA mouse melanoma experiment found group-level differences at 24 hours.Cancers (opens in a new tab)
- 2025Healthy adultsFaint light recorded near the head, alongside EEG.iScience (opens in a new tab)
- NextPeople with cancerA proposed study would match light measurements to biopsy results.
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04The next study
Next: the first study in people with cancer.
Each person’s light reading would be compared with their biopsy result. That kind of human cancer data doesn’t exist yet. Producing it is the point of the study.
Where we’re starting
IRB study in development
Breast cancer detection
HelioFlux is preparing an IRB study for breast cancer detection with Dr. Tom Lomis, a world-renowned cancer oncologist and surgeon, to evaluate how ultra-weak photon emissions may support earlier, non-invasive detection.
Human study in preparation
Skin cancer detection
90-92% accuracy across multiple cancer cell lines in cell cultures and animal models. Cancer signals detected within 24 hours; physical tumors weren’t visible for another 18 days. First human study targeting Q2 2027 with a Beverly Hills dermatology partner.
Published 2025 · iScience
Brain activity
In 20 healthy adults, faint light recorded near the head was studied alongside EEG. Published in iScience in 2025, it was an exploratory study of brain activity, not cancer detection.
05The team
The team behind
the technology.
Dr. Nirosha J. Murugan
Interim CEO, Chief Scientist & Co-Founder
She earned her Ph.D. in Biomolecular Sciences at Laurentian University, Canada, where she pioneered the quantum-sensor-based cancer detection technology now commercialized through HelioFlux. As a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Michael Levin's lab at the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, she advanced ion-channel bioelectricity as a mechanism of tissue patterning and co-developed a drug delivery system to induce limb regeneration in non-regenerative animals.
Meet the full teamThe science works.
The next step is human data.
Ten years of published research. Validated in cells, animals, and living human subjects. We’re raising a pre-pilot round for our first IRB-approved human study.