JILA Scientists Create a Cancer Breathalyzer
Most people think of breathalyzers as a tool to combat drunk driving, but a new type of breathalyzer could soon help doctors detect cancer, kidney failure, and other diseases impacting the lungs while they’re still in the early stages.
Researchers at JILA, an institution jointly operated by the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, based their innovative breathalyzer on earlier optical frequency comb technology awarded a Nobel Prize in 2005.
Adapting the optical frequency comb technology’s principles to spectroscopy, the scientists created a microwave-sized device that bounces laser beams through molecules exhaled in human breath. The system reveals the detailed composition of the breath, including the presence of biomarkers known to be associated with specific diseases.
According to the researchers, one important benefit of the device is its ability to determine the ratio of different molecules contained in a person’s breath because changes in those ratios can also point to problems. During one test involving a smoker, the breathalyzer detected five times the normal level of carbon monoxide. JILA’s team hopes once the breathalyzer is refined and tested, it will provide an affordable, non-invasive method for detecting asthma, lung cancer and other chronic medical conditions. As the team’s leader explained,
“Once it’s mass produced, the cost could be quite low. It could be put into every doctor’s clinic so people could walk in and do painless breath tests and then walk away. They would get the results in a day or so.”
Dr Jun Ye
Physicist, JILA
The experimental device has only been tested on a few college students and has only shown to be effective in detecting diseases which somehow involve lung function, yet the scientists are optimistic the breathalyzer’s applications will expand as the technology improves.
If you’d like to learn more, results of the research are published in the February 18, 2008, online edition of Optics Express.
Source: ABC News
Related Links: Colorado Daily; SeniorJournal.com; Ye Research Group
Related Podcast – Lung Cancer Screening and Prevention: Are We Reducing Lung Cancer Mortality? from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network
Technorati Tags: physics; Optical Society of America; biotechnology; diagnosing lung cancer; emphysema; pulmonary disease; oncology
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