Early diagnosis of chronic disease, e.g. chronic lung, kidney or liver diseases and cancer, is crucial to improve treatment and prognosis, especially in vulnerable patients such as children and elderly. However, current breath tests do not extract enough information from the exhaled breath and require too much breathing effort for vulnerable patients.

From prototype to usable test

In this project, a breath test will be developed based on a prototype that was already created by the aforementioned team, in which highly sensitive (carbon) nanotube sensors can measure subtle differences in the exhaled breath. The development consists of making the sensors specifically sensitive to asthma by coating them with chemicals (FSE), reading out the sensor with custom-made electronics and placing it in a controlled climate chamber, and processing the signals with artificial intelligence (FHML). In addition, breathing will be facilitated by mimicking canine nasal airflow. This new breath test will be validated with children aged 1 to 4 years, where asthma is suspected (MUMC+). The ambition is to develop the breath test into a medical product that can help tens of thousands of people in the Netherlands every year.

Research Engineering
If you need technical support for your research, take a look at the website of the Department of Research Engineering or contact us via gabrielle.tuijthof@maastrichtuniversity.nl