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Breath Collection from Children for Disease Biomarker Discovery
Published on: February 14, 2019
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Multi-modal breath measurements for biomarker discovery.
Phillip J Tomezsko1, Jordan Wynn1, Alla Ostrinskaya1
1MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA, United States of America.
Journal of Breath Research
|August 1, 2025
Summary
This study developed a multi-modal breath analysis testbed. A pilot study detected a unique breath particle signature in one participant before COVID-19 symptom onset, showing promise for breath biomarker discovery.
Area of Science:
- Pulmonary Medicine
- Biomarker Discovery
- Respiratory Health
Background:
- Breath analysis offers potential for non-invasive disease detection.
- Existing methods often focus on single types of biomarkers.
- Simultaneous multi-modal breath analysis remains an underexplored area.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a testbed for simultaneous, multi-modal breath measurements.
- To validate the testbed's capabilities through a pilot human study.
- To explore potential breath biomarkers for respiratory conditions.
Main Methods:
- Developed a novel testbed for simultaneous breath analysis.
- Collected breath samples from 17 healthy subjects.
- Analyzed particle size, lipid, and bacterial nucleic acid composition.
Main Results:
- Exhaled particles were predominantly smaller than 5μm.
- One participant showed a distinct breath particle deviation before COVID-19 symptom onset, persisting post-infection.
- Lipids in exhaled particles indicated lung surfactant origin.
- Breath microbiome was distinct from environmental and oral samples, though low in abundance.
Conclusions:
- The multi-modal breath testbed shows promise for discovering novel breath biomarkers.
- Further research is needed to validate findings and overcome microbiome analysis limitations.
- This approach could serve as a reference for existing breath biomarker classes.
