EARLY-STAGE DISEASE DETECTION SYSTEM BY BREATH ANALYZER
Project Goal
Scientific development of a novel sensor technology for detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath of human individuals.
Integration of sensors to a breathalyzer device for early screening and health monitoring at a point-of-care.
Scientific Background
Exhaled breath of human individuals contains a number of complex volatile and non-volatile organic compounds such as aldehydes, ketones, hydrocarbons, and alcohols.1 Among these, the major VOCs that can be recognized (in ppb level) are ethanol, acetone, methanol, and isoprene.
Reports have identified that during a diseased state a change in the biochemical processes of organs leads to a modified consumption of chemical compounds.1,2 This results in an abnormal alteration in the body fluid composition leading to a change in the composition of VOCs in exhaled breath. Based on this concept, accurate screening and monitoring of chronic lung diseases (CLD), chronic kidney diseases (CKD), diabetes, lung cancer etc. is possible.
Our innovative sensors will target specific VOCs, namely, ethanol, formaldehyde, acetone and ammonia in the exhaled breath as biomarkers of CLD, CKD and diabetes for early detection and monitoring of the diseases.
Key Innovations
Development of indigenous sensors for detection of ammonia and acetone in ppb level has been done. These two biomarkers have been initially identified towards detection of kidney dysfunction and diabetic conditions and liver dysfunction, respectively.
The sensor assembly for the breathalyzer has been designed with a system on chip architecture on silicon where four different sensors have been organized with different functionalizations of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) to detect specific analytes.
Initial lab based detection tests of ammonia with curcumin reduced RGO sensors (C-RGO) resulted in a reasonably linear response with high reproducibility and limit of detection as low as 500 ppb.
Detection of acetone with N-doped RGO sensors showed highly repeatable detection at a low concentration of 400 ppb.
