Disease tests in a breath

A SIMPLE breathalyser test may soon be all it takes to diagnose diabetes, asthma and even certain cancers.

Macquarie University researcher Dr Noushin Nasiri has developed a groundbreaking device called the Nanotech Electronic Nose that has the ability to analyse a person’s breath and detect biomarkers that could signify disease.

“Human breath contains nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour, plus a tiny fraction – less than 1 per cent – of thousands of other gases in very small concentrations,” Dr Nasiri said.

“There’s evidence that certain combinations of molecules among those gases can indicate particular disease states.”

The science around biomarkers in breath is cuttingedge medicine and the race is on internationally to build the devices.

While breathalyser technology has been around for years and is used by police to detect alcohol, Dr Nasiri’s device uses nanotechnology, designed to pick up biomarker combinations with an array of tiny sensors, which can collect information and wirelessly

“We know there are 28 diseases that we are able to detect with a biomarker”

transmit readings into a small computer that analyses the data and displays a result.

“We know there are 28 diseases that we are able to detect with a biomarker in the human breath,” Dr Nasiri said.

“One of the biomarkers for lung cancer is ethanol and if you can detect acetone, it is a biomarker for diabetes, (while) asthma has nitrogen monoxide for a biomarker.”

Dr Nasiri hopes the device, which is laboratory-based at present, can be developed commercially as a quick, cheap, non-invasive diagnostic test to replace existing screening programs that are expensive and often invasive.

She is in discussion with potential industry partners to commercialise the invention.