Every New Year we look to the future and dream what is impossible. ReachMD radio is proud to present our special series Focus On Future Medicine and Genetics.
We are all familiar with the use of breathalyzers to determine blood alcohol contents, but according to new research breath testing could be a regular part of the primary care exam. Welcome to a special program focusing on the future of medicine, I am Dr. Larry Kaskel your host and joining us today are two scientists from JILA, a Joint Institute of the University of Colorado in the National Institute of Standards and Technology Dr. Jun Ye and Dr. Michael Thorpe whose research has shown that markers for disease such as asthma or cancer can actually be determined by analyzing trace molecules in the breath using LaserLight.
DR. LARRY KASKEL:
Doctors welcome to the show.
DR. JUN YE:
Thank you. It is great to be here.
DR. LARRY KASKEL:
So, Dr. Ye lets start with you. Can you tell me a little bit about how we can actually or explain how breath is analyzed by a LaserLight?
DR. JUN YE::
Yeah, this is true. Human breath contains many different types of molecules. In fact, a 1000 different kinds of molecules coming out of our breath and some of which the so called biomarkers and they are associated with certain disease, states, or environmental exposures like you have been to the bad place and you come back, your breath will contain some of that residual molecules and each type of molecules has a very different distinct signature patterns of absorptions the way that molecules interact with light. So, we can now use a very special kind of LaserLight that can allow us to force through all kinds of distinct molecular absorption patterns. In doing so, we can know from the breath what kind of molecules. How many of them are actually contained in there and from that once you can make a link between the existence of these trace molecules, so called biomarkers to the diseased state, you can now make a diagnostic recognition of a particular human disease conditions or environmental exposures.
DR. LARRY KASKEL:
Dr. Thorpe can you tell me a little bit more about the information that is contained actually in the mixture of gases that we exhale, besides what I felt it was just carbon dioxide.
DR. MICHAEL THORPE
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