But how does the technology work exactly? Parsons explains it as utilising what is known as a "fluorescent immunoassay system" that absorbs blue light and releases photons of red light depending on how much of any given nanoparticle, or quantum dot, is present.

"Quantum dots give us some quite fantastic advantages in terms of the performance of that system, and around those quantum dots we've developed an opto-electronic format which is really a lens system to be able to measure these tiny amounts of light that are coming from our quantum belts," he says.