Biomachine Olfaction
Cancer Diagnosis from Urine Scent
RealNose is pioneering machine olfaction, integrating AI and bionanotechnology to detect scent signatures with speed and precision.
Spun out from DARPA-funded MIT research, with support from GlaxoSmithKline and the Prostate Cancer Foundation, our platform delivers non-invasive, highly accurate diagnostics by creating real-time, VOC-conferred signatures.
Applications:
Prostate cancer detection from urine – Our first medical application is a scalable alternative to invasive prostate cancer diagnostics, first as a screening tool competing with PSA and eventually trained to determine Gleason scores with superior accuracy -RealNose.ai were recruited for NYU Endless Frontier Labs 2024-2025 accelerator
Security & Defense – Tracking (hazards, narcotics, humans), drone navigation asynchronous comms and swarming -RealNose was selected as NATO DIANA Innovators 2025
Biopharma & Manufacturing – inline monitoring of quality and contamination
Consumer & IoT – Bringing scent recognition to smartphones, wearables etc.
Machine olfaction is the next leap in digital sensing. RealNose is making it possible.
RealNose Publicity
WOSU: Dogs Teach Us to Detect Disease
Our Patents
2. Systems and Methods for De-Biased Clustering of Data to Enhance Prostate Cancer Diagnosis from Urine Volatiles in Machine Olfaction
USPTO PATENT 302733.0003
Filed November 8, 2024
1. Machine Olfaction and Multi-Mode Sensor Fusion Architectures for Non-Invasive Sensing
USPTO PATENT 302733.0002
Filed June 13, 2024
4. Directed Evolution of AI Agents for Disease Detection
USPTO PATENT 302733.0005
Filed December 2, 2024
Relevant Papers
Towards robust machine olfaction: debiasing GC-MS data enhances prostate cancer diagnosis from urine volatiles (PREPRINT) Adan Rotteveel, Wen-Yee Lee, Zoi Kountouri, Nikolas Stefanou, Howard Kivell, Clifford Gluck, Shuguang Zhang, Andreas Mershin bioRxiv 2024.11.19.624273; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.11.19.624273 (submitted to PLoS One)
Feasibility of integrating canine olfaction with chemical and microbial profiling of urine to detect lethal prostate cancer Guest C, Harris R, Sfanos KS, Shrestha E, Partin AW, Trock B, Mangold L, Bader R, Kozak A, Mclean S, Simons J, Soule H, Johnson T, Lee WY, Gao Q, Aziz S, Stathatou PM, Thaler S, Foster S, Mershin A. PLoS One. 2021 Feb 17;16(2):e0245530. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245530. PMID: 33596212; PMCID: PMC7888653.
Diffusion fails to make a stink Gerard McCaul, Andreas Mershin, Denys I. Bondar; . Physics of Fluids 1 March 2021; 33 (3): 031801.
Multiscale design of cell-free biologically active architectural structures Ho G. , Kubušová V. , Irabien C. , Li V. , Weinstein A. , Chawla Sh. , Yeung D. , Mershin A. , Zolotovsky K. , Mogas-Soldevila L. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. , 27 March 2023 Sec. Biomaterials Volume 11 - 2023
Franco, MI., Turin, L., Mershin, A., Skoulakis E.M.C., Molecular vibration sensing component in Drosophila melanogaster olfaction. PNAS March 1, vol. 108 no. 9 3797-3802 (2011)
Highlighted on date of online pub (02/14/2011) by both Nature: Flies Sniff Out Heavy Hydrogen and Science: Do Vibrating Molecules Give Us Our Sense of Smell?
Franco, MI., Turin, L., Mershin, A., Skoulakis E.M.C., Reply to Hettinger: Olfaction is a physical and a chemical sense in Drosophila PNAS August 2, Vol. 108 no. 31 (2011)
Tourlomousis, F., Jia, C., Karydis, T. Mershin, A. Wang, H. Kalhyon, D. M., Chang, R. Machine learning metrology of cell confinement in melt electrowritten three-dimensional biomaterial substrates. Nature Microsyst Nanoeng 5, 15 March 25 2019 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41378-019-0055-4F. Covered by The Economist May 16 2019
Sivan Kaminski, Dvir Schirman, {…} Kate Adamala, Simmie Foster, Shannon Johnson, Andreas Mershin, Orna Dahan & Yitzhak Pilpel. Evolthon: a community endeavor to evolve lab evolution PLoS Biology March 29 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000182
T. Karydis, F. Aguiar, S. L. Foster, & A. Mershin. Performance characterization of self-calibrating protocols for wearable EEG applications. PETRAe Conf. Proc., ISBN: 978-1-4503-3452-5 doi>10.1145/2769493.2769533Proceedings of the 8th ACM International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments Article No. 38 (2015)
T. Karydis, F. Aguiar, S. L. Foster, & A. Mershin. Self-Calibrating Protocols as diagnostic aids for personal medicine, neurological conditions and pain assessment. PETRAe Conf. Proc., ISBN: 978-1-4503-4337-4 doi>10.1145/2910674.29358522016 Proceedings of the 9th ACM International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments Article No. 61 (2016)
3. Directed Evolution of Bacteria for Disease Detection from Urine
USPTO PATENT 302733.0004
Filed December 2, 2024
Book
“Perception: How Olfaction and Other Senses Create Reality” by Chris Rose and Andreas Mershin (First Limited Edition Published March 2025 Glasgow, Scotland, 2nd Edition KDP available on Amazon Q2 2025)
Meet the Team
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Nikolas Stefanou
FOUNDER & CEO
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Dr. Andreas Mershin
FOUNDER & CSO
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Dr. Shuguang Zhang
ADVISOR
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Adan Rotteveel
HEAD OF AI
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Zoi Kountouri
OPERATIONS MANAGER
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Dr. Howard Kivell
ADVISOR, INVESTOR, UROLOGIST
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Dr. Clifford Gluck
ADVISOR, UROLOGIST
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Priscilla Christie
BUSINESS DEVELOPER
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Alexandru Dan
ADVISOR, NATO DIANA
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Armando Cañas
ADVISOR
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Talk to Our Experts
Reach out to our team of highly knowledgeable professionals to discuss your requirements and find out how our groundbreaking AI-Bionano machine olfaction technology can revolutionize your sensing solutions.