Of bonds, waves and frequencies

N. RAMAKRISHNAN

Jul 2023
from Shaastra :: vol 02 issue 04 :: Jul - Aug 2023

TeraLumen plans to launch a product slated to help surgeons locate every cancerous cell in a patient while they operate.

Entrepreneur-scientists are working on detecting cancer tissues, precision labelling of proteins and ultrasonic-guided wave technology.

TeraLumen Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Founder: Jyotirmayee Dash
Year: 2019
Big idea: Using terahertz frequency for cancer margin detection

Jyotirmayee Dash briefly taught in an engineering college before realising she was not cut out for it. Dash, who did her PhD on the terahertz frequency — 10^¹² Hz or 0.1 THz to 3 THz range — from the Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute affiliated to the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, noticed that there was no company in India at the time using this technology. So, she started TeraLumen Solutions to use terahertz for various applications.

The terahertz frequency was largely unexplored till about 10 years ago, after which researchers realised it had a wide range of applications, Dash says. The fact that this frequency is extremely sensitive to water content prompted her to use the technology to develop a product that would help in cancer margin detection.