Designed to revolutionize how we detect and manage disease, this prize challenged teams to develop advanced health sensors that can radically improve the accuracy, accessibility, and ease of real-time personal health monitoring.
Impact
$105M+ invested in winning teams to advance health sensing technologies.
6 patents issued to winning teams
3,000+ participants in the world’s largest breath-based clinical trial for early cancer detection
Winner
Nanobiosym (Phase 1) – Developed Gene-RADAR, a portable nanochip device that detects pathogens like HIV or E. coli from a drop of blood or saliva in under an hour, without lab infrastructure.
DNA Medicine Institute (Phase 2) – Created rHealth, a handheld device that runs rapid tests from a single drop of blood, screening for diseases from flu to Ebola, with real-time wireless health data.

Nanobiosym Gene-RADAR

DMI
Sponsors
Sponsors fund the prize journey from bold idea to breakthrough—shaping each competition, supporting global teams, and accelerating solutions that scale. Their backing powers impact that lasts well beyond the prize.
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Partners
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Barrier
Despite advances in medicine, most health monitoring remained reactive, clinic-based, and dependent on infrastructure. The world needed accurate, low-cost sensors that could monitor health anytime, anywhere, and outside traditional systems.
Breakthrough
The breakthrough technology combined advanced biosensing, portability, and real-time data, empowering individuals with faster, more accurate health insights, paving the way for personalized, decentralized, proactive care.
About the Prize
The $2.25M Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE was created to accelerate the development of transformative health sensing technologies, tools that could radically improve how we detect, monitor, and understand our health in daily life.
Held in two phases (2013–2014), the competition spurred innovations in biosensing, mobile diagnostics, and real-time health tracking. Phase I awarded its Grand Prize to Nanobiosym for Gene-RADAR—a portable nanochip-based device that detects pathogens like HIV or E. coli in under an hour from a single drop of blood or saliva. It required no lab, electricity, or running water, making it ideal for use in remote or underserved settings.
DNA Medicine Institute won phase II with rHealth, a handheld device capable of performing complex blood tests, screening for infectious diseases, and delivering continuous health data through wireless sensors.
Together, these solutions demonstrated the power of smart, user-friendly diagnostic tools to deliver clinical-grade results anytime, anywhere.
The prize helped catalyze a movement toward accessible, data-driven healthcare—that continues to shape personalized medicine today.
Prize Schedule
Launched in 2013, the Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE concluded in 2014 after two phases. Phase I awarded its Grand Prize to Nanobiosym for Gene-RADAR, while Phase II named DNA Medicine Institute the winner for rHealth.
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