“Ovarian cancer is very hard to detect, but if it can be caught early, it is much easier to treat. My lab found that carbon nanotubes — tiny fluorescent particles — can respond to proteins in the blood and give a diverse set of signals. We used machine learning algorithms to make sense of these signals. We found that our nanosensors  can be used to detect ovarian cancer better than conventional markers, and they may be able to be adapted to detect many other cancers.”