Breathe and wait no more than 20 minutes for an accurate result on your biomarkers. That’s the experience that imec aims for with its breath-based testing tool.
Breath analysis technology can detect a variety of diseases and medical conditions ranging from respiratory diseases to metabolic and infectious diseases (e.g. bacterial infections such as Tuberculosis, viral infections such as COVID-19, and potentially COPD exacerbations).
The problem with most of the tests for infectious diseases or respirairatory diseases is that the sample collection is often uncomfortable for the patient, and that the analysis takes a lot of time; time that is precious for the patient and – in case of contagious diseases – for his environment. Other drawbacks are reliability, complexity, and precision.
Imec strongly believes in the power of aerosols for diagnostics and for gaining insights in disease transmissions. That's why imec developed a new breath-test prototype that is not based on exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) but on RT-qPCR, leveraging imec’s existing rapid on-chip PCR technology building blocks (time to result can be reduced up to 5’). This last technique, used in clinical laboratories, is known for its high sensitivity and specificity. With its breath sampler, imec aims to introduce fast, easy and accurate identification of disease markers in breath.
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A breath-based testing device that's derived from imec's breath sampler concept will be:
That makes it ideal for use in airports, at a hospital’s emergency unit or a GP’s office.
Imec leverages silicon chip technology to develop a new testing approach. We’re working on a breath sampler that e.g. detects COVID-19 viral particles that are contained in aerosols and droplets.
Watch the video to see how the new test combines the ease of a breath sampler with the sensitivity of a PCR analysis.
Features:
Because this solution is based on standard chip technology, it’s mass-producible. It can be quickly made accessible in unlimited amounts (e.g. in case of a pandemic that spreads via exhaled particles).
Imec performed several clinical studies with its breath sampler. Below is one of the results that was achieved in such a study.
Want to get involved in this project? Feel free reach out.