BIOmarker SENSing in exhaled breath for monitoring and detecting noninvasive PATHologies – BIOSENS-PATH

In France, approximately 3 million people suffer from chronic renal failure (CRF) that can lead to dialysis or renal transplant. Such treatments are exhausting and temporary while waiting for a kidney donation. Early detection of diseases is therefore a crucial issue for rapid management of patients to increase their chances of recovery, and prevent the spread of the disease, while saving human resources and money.
Currently, these analyses are done in the urine and blood of the patients. However, the results are often unreliable or performed with intrusive and uncomfortable methods. Interestingly, these pathologies can be detected by identifying and quantifying biomarkers like ammonia (NH3) in the breath. This project is therefore oriented towards a non-invasive detection of the NH3 biomarker in the exhaled air of patients for an easy monitoring of their health. A portable sensor for rapid detection of biomarkers could be a very interesting tool to help physicians in the follow-up of patients with uraemia, renal failure or liver dysfunction.
Therefore, in this project, we propose the development of a high-performance biomarker sensor based on surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology functionalized by Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). The presence of NH3 in the breath of a healthy human varies from 0.5 ppm to 2.1 ppm, while the amount measured in the case of a patient with kidney disease varies from 0.82 to 14.7 ppm. The final sensor will have to be able to measure NH3 at such concentrations in exhaled air, with high selectivity among interferents (CO2, O2, H2O, ...).