CliniHub is developing a cheap detector that senses a telltale fluorescent glow from disease markers.

Credit-card-sized sample trays inserted in a modem-sized reader hold antibody-coated polystyrene beads containing a fluorescent label. The antibodies interact with specific disease markers, causing the beads to clump together, quickly producing a strong red fluorescence under UV light from an LED. That glow is picked up by a built-in light detector based on low-cost photodiode technology.

They are aiming for a sub-$100 breast-cancer screening test, which is much cheaper than mammography.

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Hand-held detector aims to diagnose disease