This paper reviews our first miniature nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) system originally reported in [1], [2], which, weighing only 2 kg, is 60 times lighter, 40 times smaller, yet 60 times more spin mass sensitive than a 120-kg state-of-the-art commercial benchtop NMR system. The miniaturization was made possible by combining the physics of NMR with a high-performance CMOS radio-frequency integrated circuit. The system is aimed at sensing biomolecules such as cancer marker proteins, and represents a circuit designer's approach to pursue low-cost diagnostics in a portable platform. Our most recent development of even smaller NMR systems [3] will not be reviewed here, as it has yet to be exposed in full through a journal publication first.