Asia Pacific (/himss-taxonomy-region/asia-pacific)

Innovation (/topics/innovation)

NUS spin-off company

develops one-minute
breath test to detect
COVID-19
Breathonix’s breath analysis technology works by
detecting Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) present in
a person’s exhaled breath.

By October 22, 2020 04:15 am

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Credit: NUS
Founded in Singapore in September 2019, Breathonix
Pte Ltd, a spin-off company from the National
University of Singapore (NUS), has developed an easy-
to-use breath test to detect COVID-19 within a minute.
The company develops non-invasive breath tests for
disease detection.

Breathonix was founded by two NUS graduates, Dr Jia

Zhunan and Mr Du Fang, and is supported by the NUS
Graduate Research Innovation Programme (GRIP), a
scheme that encourages the University’s talented
graduate students and research staff to establish and
run high potential start-ups based on deep
technologies.

HOW IT WORKS

The startup’s breath analysis technology works by

detecting Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) present
in a person’s exhaled breath. Dr Jia, the CEO of
Breathonix explained, "VOCs are consistently produced
by various biochemical reactions in human cells.
Different diseases cause specific changes to the
compounds, resulting in detectable changes in a
person’s breath profile. As such, VOCs can be measured
as markers for diseases like COVID-19.”

The test is simple to administer. A person only needs to

blow into a disposable mouthpiece connected to a
high-precision breath sampler. The exhaled breath is
collected and fed into a cutting-edge mass
spectrometer for measurement. A machine learning
software analyses the VOC profile and generates the
result in less than a minute.

ONGOING CLINICAL TRIAL & POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS

The team at Breathonix collaborated with the National

Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), to test their
breath analysis system for COVID-19 detection. In a
pilot clinical trial involving 180 patients, Breathonix’s
breath test, which uses in-built machine learning
algorithms, achieved more than 90 per cent accuracy,
with sensitivity (i.e. correctly identify those with the
disease) of 93 per cent, and specificity (i.e. correctly
identify those without the disease) of 95 per cent.

The clinical trial is ongoing, and more tests are

required to further improve the accuracy of the
technology.

If assessed to be suitable, this breath analysis platform

could potentially be deployed in airports to facilitate
the recovery of the tourism sector, as well as in places
with high human traffic, such as dormitories.

THE LARGER TREND

Singapore has no shortage of innovative solutions

when it comes to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last month, a group of clinicians from Singapore
partnered with Biobot Surgical Pte Ltd, a local company
which focuses on medical robotics solutions, to
develop a robot that automates nasal swabbing
needed to diagnose COVID-19, Healthcare IT News

The robot, called SwabBot, is a self-administered robot

which allows individuals being swabbed to activate and
terminate the swabbing process at will. Earlier in the
year, Singapore-based companies have also developed
several COVID-19 test kits: these include the

,
 and

ON THE RECORD

“Our breath test is easy to administer, and it does not

require specially-trained staff or laboratory processing.
Results are generated in real-time, making it an
attractive solution for mass screening, especially in
areas with high human traffic. We believe our breath
analysis platform shows promise in changing the tides
of this pandemic,” said Dr Jia.

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