Portable personal breath-test device for disease biomarkers
This technology is a two-part breath-testing system designed to detect disease markers in exhaled breath. The first part is a handheld breath sampler that captures volatile organic compounds (VOCs) — chemical traces linked to diseases — using a tiny chip-based trap called a MEMS preconcentrator housed in a removable cartridge. The user breathes into the sampler, and the cartridge is then physically transferred to a second device, the analyzer, which identifies and measures those trapped compounds. The patent also covers a manufacturing tool that coats many of these tiny chips simultaneously at the wafer level, making production scalable and consistent.
What you could build
A portable breath-test kit — similar in concept to a home COVID test — where a consumer or clinician collects a breath sample in a reusable device and sends or docks a cartridge for analysis of metabolic or disease-related compounds; target buyers are clinical diagnostics companies, hospital systems, and consumer health device makers.
Who in Virginia should care
Defense and government health contractors in Northern Virginia, plus MedTech companies near the Virginia-Maryland biomedical corridor, would have interest in portable disease-detection platforms.
Readiness: Lab validated
Concept — described but not yet demonstrated. Lab validated — supported by experimental results in the patent. Prototype likely — the text describes a built, working embodiment.
Readiness is inferred from the patent text, not from a lab visit.
The record
- Inventors
- Masoud Agah, Nipun Thamatam, Mustahsin Chowdhury
- Filed
- Patent pending — filed September 19, 2025
- Status
- Application
- Publication number
- US20260016450A1
Ready to talk?
Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties handles licensing for this technology.
Prosim summaries are generated from public patent text and are not legal advice.