For a colorectal cancer researcher trying to understand why a tumor resists chemotherapy, the question often comes down to oxidative stress: how many free radicals a single cell is producing, where inside that cell they cluster, and how that signature shifts when a candidate drug is added. QT Sense, a Dutch deeptech company spun out of work in Groningen, is betting that a fluorescent nanodiamond, small enough to sit inside a living cell, can answer it.
The company's product, Quantum Nuova, uses nitrogen-vacancy centers in nanodiamonds as quantum sensors that produce spatially resolved, quantitative maps of radical levels for disease research, drug efficacy profiling, and environmental monitoring [QT Sense Website, 2026]. Early-access systems are already in the hands of research and drug discovery partners, including groups working on colorectal cancer [The Quantum Insider, Feb 2026].
The standard of care today
Quantum Nuova is a research instrument, not a diagnostic device cleared by the FDA or EMA. The underlying nanodiamond sensing approach has been described in peer-reviewed work, including an in vivo study in C. elegans models published in 2025 [PubMed, 2025]. Oxidative stress profiling, where QT Sense plays, sits upstream of clinical diagnostics, in the laboratories where the next generation of therapies is screened.
The bet
QT Sense is selling a tool, not a therapy. The business model is B2B: ship Quantum Nuova systems to pharma research groups, academic labs, and contract research organizations. The wedge is physics. Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond are sensitive to magnetic fields at the nanoscale, which lets them report on free radical concentrations from inside a cell rather than averaged across a population of cells.
Why it could be big
The market shape favors picks-and-shovels plays in drug discovery. QT Sense has now raised across two seed rounds: roughly €6 million ($6.5M) in February 2025 [EU-Startups, Feb 2025] and a further €4 million ($4.3M) in February 2026 [The Quantum Insider, Feb 2026].
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Seed (Feb 2025) | $6.5M |
| Seed (Feb 2026) | $4.3M |
| Total disclosed | $10.8M |
Founder Romana Schirhagl is listed publicly as the founder of QT Sense [LinkedIn, 2026], and her academic group in Groningen has been a consistent contributor to the nanodiamond sensing literature [PubMed, 2025].
The honest counterfactual
Research instruments are a slow business. Selling capital equipment into academic and pharma labs typically means long sales cycles and demanding service expectations. The 2026 follow-on at $4.3M is smaller than the 2025 round [The Quantum Insider, Feb 2026], which suggests the company is funding incrementally against milestones. However, the early-access deployments into colorectal cancer research groups [The Quantum Insider, Feb 2026] are the right proof points to pursue first. If those partners publish results that other labs want to replicate, demand for Quantum Nuova systems can compound through the literature itself.
What to watch
The next twelve months are about converting early-access placements into named, citable customer results. Watch for peer-reviewed papers from QT Sense's research partners that use Quantum Nuova readouts to make a specific claim about a drug candidate or a disease mechanism. Watch for the company to disclose its first pharma partnership by name, which would mark a shift from academic credibility to commercial validation.