Your breath can give away a lot about you. Each exhalation contains all sorts of compounds, including possible biomarkers for disease or lung conditions, that could give doctors a valuable insight into your health.
Now a new smart mask, developed by a team at the California Institute of Technology, could help doctors check your breath for these signals continuously and in a noninvasive way. A patient could wear the mask at home, measure their own levels, and then go to the doctor if a flare-up is likely.
“They don’t have to come to the clinic to assess their inflammation level,” says Wei Gao, professor of Medical Engineering at Caltech and one of the smart mask’s creators. “This can be lifesaving.”
The smart mask, details of which were published in Science today, uses a two-part cooling system to chill the breath of its wearer. The cooling turns the breath into exhaled breath condensate (EBC).
EBC, essentially a liquid version of someone’s breath, is easier to analyze, because biomarkers like nitrite and alcohol content are more concentrated in a liquid than in a gas. The mask design takes inspiration from plants’ capillary abilities, using a series of microfluidic modules that create pressure to push the EBC fluid around to sensors in the mask.
The sensors are connected via Bluetooth to a device like a phone, where the patient has access to real-time health readings.
“The biggest challenge has always been collecting real-time samples. This problem has been solved. That’s a paradigm shift,” says Rajan Chakrabarty, professor of Environmental and Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and who was not involved in the research.
The Caltech team tested the smart mask with patients, including several who had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma or had just gotten over a covid-19 infection. They were testing the masks for comfort and breathability, but they also wanted to see if the masks actually worked at tracking useful biomarkers throughout a patient’s daily activities, such as exercise and work.
The mask picked up on higher levels of nitrite in patients who had asthma or other conditions that involved inflamed airways. It also picked up on higher alcohol content after a patient went out drinking, which demonstrates another potential application of the mask. Analyzing breath this way is more accurate than the typical breathalyzer test, which involves a patient blowing into a device. Blowing can produce imprecise results due to alcohol in saliva being spit out.
The researchers hope this is just the beginning. They plan to test the masks on a larger population, and if all goes well, commercialize the masks to get them out to a wider audience. They hope the mask will be a platform for broader application, where sensors for a range of biomarkers could be slotted in and out.
“What I would like to be able to do is take off their sensors, put in my sensors, and this becomes the building block for doing all other types of development,” says Albert Titus, professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University at Buffalo and who wasn’t part of the Caltech team. “That’s where I’d like to see it go.”
For example, there may be the possibility to measure ketones in the breath, a high level of which is a sign of diabetes, or glucose levels, to help people with diabetes monitor their condition.
“The mask can be reconfigured for many different applications,” says Gao.
News
Scientists Discover 250+ Genes That Could Lead to New Ways To Prevent Melanoma
The world’s largest study of mole genetics identified hundreds of genes tied to melanoma risk, uncovering potential new drug targets and paving the way for more accurate melanoma screening and prevention. Researchers at QIMR [...]
Breakthrough Diabetes Treatment Reprograms the Immune System
An engineered stem cell therapy reversed new-onset Type 1 diabetes in mice by shifting the immune system away from attacking insulin-producing cells. For more than a century, people with Type 1 diabetes have relied [...]
Taking the world’s temperature: WHO chief spotlights global health emergencies
Taking the world’s temperature on pressing health matters, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus provided the latest on current global challenges - and successes when it comes to international cooperation. “The outbreaks of hantavirus, Ebola and Marburg all show [...]
Scientists Create Tiny “Mini Livers” That Could One Day Replace Liver Transplants
Engineered tissue grafts could help perform key liver functions and benefit thousands of people living with liver failure. The liver is one of the body’s hardest-working organs, carrying out hundreds of vital jobs, from [...]
NanoMedical Brain/Cloud Interface – Explorations and Implications. A new book from Frank Boehm
New book from Frank Boehm, NanoappsMedical Inc Founder: This book explores the future hypothetical possibility that the cerebral cortex of the human brain might be seamlessly, safely, and securely connected with the Cloud via [...]
Scientists Discover Surprising Way To Help the Brain Recover After Stroke
A new study suggests that strengthening the body’s natural circadian rhythms may help the brain recover after stroke, even when treatment begins days after the injury. Every year, millions of people survive a stroke, [...]
Our books now available worldwide!
Online Sellers other than Amazon, Routledge, and IOPP Indigo Global Health Care Equivalency in the Age of Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine and Artifcial Intelligence Global Health Care Equivalency In The Age Of Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine And Artificial [...]
Younger Generations Are Aging Faster – and It May Be Fueling a Surge in Cancer
Younger generations may be aging biologically faster than those before them, and that shift could help explain rising rates of cancer at younger ages. For decades, cancer was viewed largely as a disease of [...]
Using Cannabis Could Raise Your Stroke Risk by 37%, Massive Study Reveals
Large-scale evidence suggests cannabis, cocaine, and amphetamines may directly raise stroke risk, including in younger adults. As recreational drug use becomes increasingly common, researchers are uncovering evidence that its health consequences may extend far beyond [...]
Could Vitamin C Be the Secret to Keeping Your Brain Younger?
Lower vitamin C levels were linked to reduced brain volume and weaker neural connectivity in older adults, suggesting a potential connection between nutrition and brain health. Could a common vitamin help preserve the brain [...]
This Deadly Disease Was Wiping Out Humans 5,500 Years Ago
A new study suggests plague was already a deadly threat 5,500 years ago, striking small hunter-gatherer communities long before cities and agriculture emerged. For centuries, plague has been remembered as the disease that devastated [...]
China closing in but US leads in biotech quality, commercial reach, survey finds
SAN DIEGO, June 22 (Reuters) - China, which now conducts more clinical drug trials, opens new tab than the U.S., still lags in the quality and commercial reach of its biomedical science, according to a recent survey, opens new [...]
New method generates renewable supply of progenitor immune cells
In a paper published in Cell, a USC Stem Cell-led team reports a new way of generating a renewable and expandable supply of the progenitor cells that give rise to macrophages. These immune cells help [...]
Scientists Just Discovered a Cellular Survival System That Was Never Supposed To Exist
A surprising backup pathway allows cells to make a crucial amino acid when their primary machinery fails. For decades, biologists believed cells had only one way to access a molecule they cannot live without. New [...]
Artificial cells gain porous membranes, enabling lab reactions and drug release
Artificial cells created in the laboratory offer a wide range of potential applications. Until now, however, their membranes—unlike those of real cells—have been virtually impermeable. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, [...]
Popular Weight-Loss Drugs Like Ozempic Linked to Lower Breast Cancer Risk
Ozempic and similar weight-loss drugs were linked to a striking 30% reduction in breast cancer risk in a study of more than 110,000 women. Popular weight-loss and diabetes medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, [...]
