MamoRef is an optical mammography system that uses near-infrared light to help classify breast lesions. It is the flagship development of BIONiRS: a public-science project born in a CONICET and UNICEN research group.
Gold-standard breast cancer detection techniques are indispensable, but they have well-known limitations that affect both patients and the health system.
of biopsies ordered after a suspicious finding come back negative for cancer.
is the additional metabolic information that can help tell healthy from cancerous tissue apart — information structural imaging alone doesn't provide.
High costs and late diagnoses, worsened in dense breasts and in settings with limited access to equipment.
MamoRef is an optical mammography imaging system for breast cancer detection and follow-up. It uses low-power, non-ionizing lasers and whole-field continuous-wave diffuse reflectance to generate maps of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin concentration, estimating the metabolic activity of breast lesions.
The goal is to classify lesion malignancy, enable continuous follow-up of women under observation or treatment, and reduce the need for unnecessary biopsies — complementing, not replacing, standard imaging techniques.
The patient rests her breast on a transparent window, with no mechanical compression. Device schematic — Figure 2, Carbone et al. 2026.
No mechanical compression: the breast rests freely on the optical window.
Uses low-power near-infrared laser light, harmless for patients of any age.
No shielded room or dedicated infrastructure required: it can be brought to the patient.
Metabolic images are generated during the same visit.
Designed to cut costs relative to gold-standard techniques, widening access to diagnosis.
Adds metabolic data to standard imaging, with full-breast coverage.
MamoRef advances in stages, with results published and peer-reviewed at every step.
BIONiRS grew out of the Biomedical Optics Group at CIFICEN (CONICET – UNICEN), in Tandil, Argentina, as the vehicle to turn years of near-infrared spectroscopy research into a real clinical device. MamoRef is that development: built, validated, and published together with hospitals and health centers.
Updates from the lab, the team, and MamoRef's development, on the other side of the screen — including our YouTube channel.