LightUp

Each year, 600,000 people are diagnosed with esophageal cancer and 75% die within 5 years after receiving this diagnosis. Screening with conventional endoscopy is offered to people with Barrett’s esophagus, a disease linked to a higher cancer risk, but it misses 25% of early cancer and is expensive. We developed the LightUp, a pill-sized imaging device that patients can swallow. A nurse pulls the capsule up by a string while it images the inside of the esophagus in two minutes and an AI algorithm then gives a diagnosis. LightUp makes cancer easier to see by combining high-resolution imaging with a technique that makes cancer tissue light up and scientific studies have proven that LightUp will detect at least 25% more early cancer.