Holomic LLC, now rebranded as Cellmic LLC, is a technology company dedicated to improving patient healthcare in developing countries using smartphones and biophotonics, with the aim of improving the detection of killer diseases like malaria and tuberculosis (TB). The firm is developing a method to replace bulky optical microscopes with computer codes and architectures that can make them extremely lightweight, compact and cost effective. While traditional hi-tech optical microscopes can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy. Holomics product, which makes use of the silicon sensor found in cell phone cameras, could cost as little as $5-10. The product, called LUCAS (Lensless, Ultra-wide-field Cell monitoring Array platform based on Shadow imaging) clips onto to the back of a standard cell phone (minus its lens) and comprises of an LED light, a spatial filter, and a slot for a medical slide. LUCAS works by passing light through a slide sample that creates shadows of individual cells on the phone's digital camera sensor positioned below. The images can then be deciphered using specially programmed computers that are able to translate the interference patterns captured on the sensor into data that can be read by medical staff. The quality of the images is constantly improving and is at submicron level, a resolution better than one millionth of a meter and sufficiently powerful enough to reliably image the malaria parasite. This breakthrough could allow detection of a treatable disease, which killed around one million children in 2008 and is responsible for one fifth of all childhood deaths each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). LUCAS would allow technicians to make accurate decisions faster and screen more slides per day. The firm is also developing a new florescent smartphone microscope advanced enough to allow for reliable detection of TB bacteria, monitoring white blood cells of HIV positive patients and assist in the prevention of waterborne diseases that collectively claim the lives of over five million people each year, according to WHO.
