‘Disease-sniffing’ phone being developed
Researchers benefitting from a European research grant have started developing a smartphone product that can help screen for early signs of life-threatening diseases.
The SNIFFPHONE project, headed by Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Professor Hossam Haick, will link the researcher’s breathalyser screening technology to the smartphone to provide non-invasive, fast and cheap disease recognition. The detector will work by using micro and nanosensors that read exhaled breath and then transfer the information through the attached mobile phone to an information-processing system for interpretation. The data is then assessed and disease diagnosis and other details are ascertained.
Commenting, Haick said: “The SNIFFPHONE is a winning solution. It will be made tinier and cheaper than disease detection solutions currently, consume little power, and most importantly, it will enable immediate and early diagnosis that is both accurate and non-invasive. Early diagnosis can save lives, particularly in life-threatening diseases such as cancer.”
The technology is supported by a €6m grant to the consortium to expand the ‘electronic nose’ breathalyser technology, which can identify individuals from the general population who have a higher likelihood for contracting a specific disease, and treat them in advance or at an early stage.
