A biosensor for lung disease?

It’s like a breathalyzer for lung disease: Biomedical engineers at MIT have developed a sensor that uses specialized nanoparticles to detect traces of lung disease in a mouse’s breath, STAT's Elizabeth Cooney writes. Specifically, the lab uses inhaled biosensors — synthetic molecules that exude certain gases when enzymes characteristic of a disease come in contact with engineered nanoparticles — to indicate whether a mouse has bacterial pneumonia or alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic disease.

The technology is still far from human trials, but the work suggests that certain diseases could be diagnosed or monitored simply through exhaled breath.