CAN MEDICAL DIAGNOSES be done by simply breathing into a device? The prototype device, called the airborne biomarker localization engine (ABLE), condensates airborne molecules into concentrated liquid droplets. This breathalyzer-like system can one day detect illnesses by spotting biological markers in the air we exhale, according to researchers.
The droplets ABLE generates are compatible with existing tech, including simple test strips, making the platform both highly accessible and very low-cost.
Airborne biomarker detection has long attracted significant interest but getting the required sensitivity has remained a challenge. Once the technology is validated, users could simply exhale onto a test strip and receive a health assessment within minutes.
Many diagnostic tests require blood draws, saliva swabs or urine samples — but collecting such samples can introduce risk, inconvenience, or both to patients. Sampling breath could help sidestep these problems.
The body emits volatile organic compounds (VOCs) — small organic molecules that are typically gaseous at room temperature that can be found in human breath. Studies suggest that specific chemicals can be tied to medical conditions, making them a potential tool for diagnosis.
There’s a difficulty in using VOCs for diagnostics since they are present at very low concentrations, sometimes as few as 1 in a trillion particles of exhaled air. This makes monitoring these compounds challenging.
Now, ABLE can suck in exhaled air through a pump, add water vapor via a humidifier, and cool the mixture to cause condensation. This changes the airborne compounds into concentrated droplets that slide into a collection reservoir, ready for testing.
As proof of concept, the researchers tested ABLE’s ability to collect several airborne chemicals. One experiment looked for glucose in exhaled human breath, confirming that the samples were not too dilute and could be accurately tied to blood-sugar concentrations in the blood. The high sensitivity of ABLE allows the usage of glucose test strips as the downstream sensors, the researchers reported.
The team also ran experiments with “humanized” lab mice imbued with microbes from human infants, who were born either preterm or full-term. They compared the concentrations of glycosphingolipids — known regulators of inflammation — in the breath of the two sets of mice, finding higher levels in the “preterm” group.
These experiments suggest ABLE could be useful for tracking chemicals in breath and ambient air, but a problem remains to be solved. Because airborne VOCs have been difficult to analyze, scientists don’t have a comprehensive understanding of which compounds relate to what disease. A shout out to basic researchers! By Manny Palomar, PhD (EV Mail SEPTEMBER 22-28, 2025 Issue)
