New breathalyser detects cancer and other diseases like an ‘optical dog’s nose’ - ScienceAlert

New breathalyser detects cancer and other diseases like an ‘optical dog’s nose’ - ScienceAlert

“Rather than sniffing out a variety of smells as a dog would, the laser system uses light to ‘sense’ the range of molecules that are present in the sample,” said James Anstie, one of the authors of the study, in a press release. “Those molecules are by-products of metabolic processes in the body and their levels change when things go wrong.”
Detailed in the journal Optics Express, Antsie and his colleagues have developed a laser-based optical spectroscopy technique that can detect the light-absorption patterns of different kinds of molecules.

Their laser directs an ‘optical frequency comb’ through a sample of gas, with up to a million different frequencies of light effectively combing exhaled breath in order to find which molecules are present. As every kind of molecular formation absorbs light in a slightly different way, the laser can quickly read the unique ‘molecular footprint’ of any suspect molecules that may be indicative of current health concerns - and it could even prove to be an important preventative tool for physicians.