BIOMARKERS TRAPPED

Purdue, NIST working on breathalyzers for medical diagnostics

January 21, 2011

• ·         Overcame Basic roadblock in developing breath-analysis technology.

• ·         Enhanced method of detecting “BIOMARKERS” in a person’s respiration.

• ·         The great news:

o   This approach can detect the biomarkers in theparts per billion to parts per million range.

o   A novel idea of this much caliber hasn’t been introduced in the last 30 years in this technology.

• ·         How does this technology work?

o   works by detecting changes in electrical resistance or conductance as gases pass over sensors built on top of "microhotplates," tiny heating devices on electronic chips. Detecting biomarkers provides a record of a patient's health profile, indicating the possible presence of cancer and other diseases.

o   The gases exhaled by the person has capabilities to alter the electrical resistance or conductance as they pass over the sensors.

o   Theses sensors are built on “microhotplates”( tiny heating devices on electronic chips).

§  What does this technology provide us with?

·         This technology provides us a record of a patient's health profile, indicating the possible presence of cancer and other diseases.

• ·         What’s the trick?

o   The researchers used a template made of micron-size polymer particles and coated them with far smaller metal oxide nanoparticles. Using nanoparticle-coated microparticles instead of a flat surface allows researchers to increase the porosity of the sensor films, increasing the "active sensing surface area" to improve sensitivity.

• ·         Creation of the sensor.

o   A droplet of the nanoparticle-coated polymer micro particles was deposited on each microhotplate, which are about 100 microns square and contain electrodes shaped like meshing fingers.

o   The droplet dries and then the electrodes are heated up, burning off the polymer and leaving a porous metal-oxide film, creating a sensor.

•  How powerful is the sensor?

         It's very porous and very sensitive.

•          Gases passing over the device permeate the film and change its electrical properties depending on the particular biomarkers contained in the gas.

·         Source purdue university site.