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
Your cells emit light.
We learned to read it.
Now we’re using it to detect cancer early. 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.
So a doctor could see cancer by its light, long before it’s big enough to show on a scan. The early findings are peer-reviewed, the research prototypes are built, and the clinical version is in development.
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
03Published research
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.
Explore the science
See the 2018 study on the research timeline2018Cells in a dishCancer and non-cancer cells differed in the color of their light.Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports (opens in a new tab)
See the 2020 study on the research timeline2020Cells and miceA mouse melanoma experiment found group-level differences at 24 hours.Cancers (opens in a new tab)
See the 2025 study on the research timeline2025Healthy adultsFaint light recorded near the head, alongside EEG.iScience (opens in a new tab)
See how the proposed study would workNextPeople with cancerA proposed study would match light measurements to biopsy results.
Featured in
“All living things emit a faint glow. Could this light be useful?”
04The next study
The signal is real. Next: proving it in cancer.
In our first human study, each participant’s light reading will be compared with their biopsy result, the clinical gold standard. Matched human data like this doesn’t exist yet. This study is designed to produce it.
Where we’re starting
IRB study in development
Breast cancer detection
HelioFlux is preparing a breast cancer study with Dr. Thomas Lomis, a board-certified surgical oncologist and medical director of Valley Breast Care, who is helping us set it up through his IRB. The goal is to test whether the faint light cells give off can help detect breast cancer earlier, without a needle.
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
Kelly Lucas
President & Co-Founder
Jim Armstrong
Interim CFO
Glenn Lucas
Chief Strategy Officer
Partner program
Help us take cancer detection
from the lab to patients.
Ten years of published research. Validated in cells, animals, and living human subjects. We’re raising a pre-pilot round for our first human cancer study, now being set up with Dr. Lomis’s IRB.