Breathalyser could replace blood tests and measure fat burning

"When burning fat, the body produces by-products that find their way into the blood," explained Andreas Güntner, a researcher at ETH Zurich who worked on the paper. One of those byproducts is acetone, and Güntner and colleagues in Sotiris Pratsinis’ research group at Zurich developed a small sensor to detect its presence.

The sensor is much more sensitive than previous sensors, and is capable of detecting one acetone molecule in 100 million. It uses a chip coated with a porous film of semiconducting tungsten trioxide particles that the researchers have implanted with single atoms of silicon.

The chip, which has been in development for seven years, was originally designed to diagnose diabetes – the breath of type 1 sufferers contains high concentrations of acetone. However, the scientists found that it’s actually sensitive enough to detect very low acetone concentrations during exercise.

Researchers are now working to refine and miniaturize the technology, which is currently the size of a penny, so it can fit into a consumer device. "This would allow athletes and people who want to lose weight to check for themselves when their bodies begin to burn fat so that they can optimise their training regimen," said Güntner.

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Although portable acetone tests already exist, they can only be used once and take minutes to show a result. "Our technology has the major benefit of being inexpensive, manageable and yet highly sensitive - plus it can take measurements in real time," said Güntner. "This makes it suitable for everyday use, while working out at a fitness centre or for people on a diet."

Tony Killard, a professor of biomedical sciences at the University of the West of England who was not involved in the research told Professional Engineering the research was “a big step forward,” although pointed out that there was still a lot of validation work to be done to make sure its measurements are accurate.

His research is around developing breath sensors to detect ammonia, which currently has to be tested using blood tests for patients with certain conditions. Instead, patients can monitor and manage their diseases at home. “What’s been holding all this back has been the technology,” he said. “It hasn’t come up to speed in terms of creating these kind of devices.”

That could be starting to change, though, and similar technology could also be used in the diagnosis of diseases such as cancer. Companies like Owlstone are trying to determine the breath ‘fingerprints’ of certain types of cancer. “It’s got a lot of potential and a lot of pitfalls,” said Killard. “Is there a volatile marker in breath that tracks with a particular disease? The linkages between those markers have to be established."

Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

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