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Latest topics 2

Tohoku University and Shimadzu Jointly

Announce a New Breath Test for

Detecting COVID-19

Tohoku University announced the development of a non-invasive beneﬁts over other testing techniques are non-invasive nature of
breath testing technology for COVID-19 through collaboration aerosol sampling and the wealth of information that can be associ-
with Shimadzu Corporation, the leading provider of analytical ated with various biological implications.
instruments and solutions. The technology termed ‘breathomics’
analyzes viral and host biomolecules contained in breath aerosols For aerosol sample collection, Tohoku University developed the
that can be collected by freely breathing into the newly-developed high-performance collection device that acquires approximately
device for ﬁve minutes. The research team aims to further apply 1 mL of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) by the subject’s own
the breathomics technology to other infectious and non-infectious manipulation in ﬁve minutes of breathing at rest. Hence the system
diseases to bring closer the future health monitoring based on allows for future point-of-care testing needed for early detection
breath sampling. and safe isolation of infected personnel.

Research Abstract The multifaceted analysis data delivered by the system include
For minimizing both spread of COVID-19 and health hazard the levels SARS-Cov-2 proteins, other viral proteins, and the host
caused, there is an urgent need for an effective test that can si- proteins and metabolites involved in inﬂammatory responses. In
multaneously screen the disease and give other diagnostic indica- addition to giving direct indication of viral infection, results can be
tions such as disease severity and prognosis. To this end, Tohoku used to evaluate the stage and conditions of the disease, to estimate
University Graduate School of Medicine and the Institute of Aging the risk of disease progression, and to predict prognosis and com-
Medicine, in collaboration with Shimadzu Corporation, worked plications. Further studies with additional input may enable predic-
on the development of the breathomics analysis system to combat tion of metabolic diseases such as cardiovascular and pulmonary
SARS-Cov-2 pandemic and more. diseases, lifestyle-related diseases, arteriosclerosis, diabetes, cancer,
and health management for preventive medicine. As such, we aim
The system developed here utilizes a technology termed ‘breath- to bring closer the future form of personalized and remote health-
omics’, which means comprehensive analysis of biological com- care system which we call ‘breath medicine’.
ponents in exhaled aerosol using mass spectrometry. Its major
*For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures

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