MIT Technology Review is reporting that a new test being developed at MIT, dubbed PlasmoSniff, could make diagnosing pneumonia and other lung conditions as simple as breathing into a tube. It said the portable, chip-scale sensor is designed to trap and detect synthetic compounds, or biomarkers, that indicate disease.
The process involves a person inhaling nanoparticles specifically engineered to attach to these biomarkers. If a lung infection like pneumonia is present, enzymes produced by the body would snip off the biomarkers, allowing them to be exhaled and measured. Professor Sangeeta Bhatia’s lab previously demonstrated in 2020 that nanoparticles could detect pneumonia in mice breath, though it required laboratory instruments.
Now, assistant professor Loza Tadesse and her team have shown they can detect these exhaled biomarkers at extremely low concentrations using enhanced Raman spectroscopy. They plan to integrate this new sensor into a handheld device for clinical or home use. Aditya Garg, an MIT postdoc, said they envision a patient inhaling nanoparticles and exhaling a biomarker reporting on lung status within about 10 minutes. The system also has potential applications for detecting industrial chemicals or airborne pollutants.
Full Article: A breath test could diagnose pneumonia in minutes