The Digistain protocol
Digistain is a company that helps doctors make better, faster decisions for people with breast cancer. After surgery, one big question is whether a patient needs chemotherapy — but finding that answer often takes weeks and expensive tests, sometimes sent to labs far away.
The name Digistain comes from how doctors usually check for cancer. Normally, they use coloured dyes made from plants to “stain” tissue samples. These dyes highlight areas with lots of DNA, which can be a sign of cancer — that’s what doctors look for under a microscope.
Digistain does something similar but in a more advanced and accurate way. Instead of using dyes, it uses an infrared scanner to carefully measure the amount of DNA in the tissue. This light reveals a unique chemical “fingerprint” of the tissue — showing clues about how aggressive the cancer might be. This gives doctors a clear, reliable result that helps them understand how serious the cancer is and what treatment might be needed.
The data from the infrared scanner is then analysed by AI, which looks at thousands of details to give a clear risk score.
This score helps doctors decide, with confidence, whether chemotherapy is really needed or not. The whole process takes about 15 minutes and can be done right at the hospital, making it much faster and cheaper than traditional lab tests.
By providing quick, reliable information, Digistain helps reduce unnecessary treatments and gives patients peace of mind — all with just a simple scan.
EntangleCam and Cancer Screening
While Digistain can currently perform this protocol at a single pixel at a time, using standard infrared imaging cameras is impossible due to thermal light that masks the molecular signatures. Since the EntangleCam does not image the infrared light directly, it is the only infrared imaging technique that is blind to this ever-present light but still able to see the “fingerprints” of molecules. Through QuSIT and the UK’s Quantum Technology Programme, we are currently developing the EntangleCam to hit the specific infrared wavelengths required for the Digistain protocol.
