Medical research · breath · urine · blood

The chemistry of a patient, read in light.

Breath carries thousands of volatile compounds; urine and blood carry more. Mid-infrared lasers can read many of them directly, at parts per billion, in seconds, without needles or a central lab. Our concept puts one analyzer on each hospital floor and runs light to every room.

See the hospital floor Breath biomarkers

3,000+volatile compounds in human breath, many linked to disease

ppb–ppmthe range where breath biomarkers live, and mid-IR reads

1 per flooranalyzer, with optical fibers to every bathroom and bedside

3 sample typesbreath, urine headspace and blood, on one optical engine

The hospital floor

One analyzer. Light to every room.

Instead of a box at every bed, a single mid-IR analyzer sits in a utility room. Optical fibers run along the corridor ceiling to a headspace port in each patient bathroom and a breath port at each bedside. An optical switch visits each port in turn: every sample is read by the same calibrated laser, and results flow to the nurses' station. No electronics in the patient room, and no sample tubes to carry.

Now readingRoom 401 · bedside breathswitch → port 1 of 24

Concept illustration with example values. Not a cleared medical device; flags shown are research examples.

Zeroelectronics or lasers in the patient room

Same laserfor every room: one calibration, comparable trends

Passiveurine-headspace port, no nurse handling

Trendsevery patient, several times a day, not one-off tests

Breath

What one breath can tell you.

Laser spectroscopy already sits behind accepted breath tests: carbon dioxide in capnography, exhaled nitric oxide for asthma, and the carbon-isotope urea breath test for H. pylori. The open question is a wider panel at the point of care. Choose a molecule.

Biomarker

Ranges are approximate values from the literature and vary with method and population.

In breath

Clinical interest

Research direction

Urine headspace: the infection signal in the air above the sample.

Bacteria that cause urinary tract infections release their own volatile metabolites, and the gas above a urine sample carries them. Recent work has profiled those volatiles with infrared spectroscopy for exactly this reason. A heated headspace port in the bathroom lets the floor analyzer look every time the patient goes, flagging a pattern for culture hours or days sooner.

UTIbacterial VOC and nitrogen/sulfur patterns

Ketonesacetone-related VOCs

Ammoniaurease-producing bacteria

Research direction

Blood and plasma, without a central lab.

For non-volatile chemistry the same laser reads a liquid through an attenuated-total-reflection crystal: glucose, lactate, urea, triglycerides and total protein from a microliter drop. Water absorbs strongly in the mid-IR, so path length, wavelength choice and calibration are the engineering, and the laser's brightness is the advantage.

µLsample volumes

5+core chemistry analytes

Cartridgeor continuous microdialysis

Research direction

Liberation chemistry widens the menu.

A simple cartridge reagent can turn a non-volatile target into a gas the optics already read: urease turns urea into ammonia and CO₂; acid releases bicarbonate as CO₂. The panel grows without changing the instrument. Cross-checks between phases, such as blood ketones against breath acetone, add confidence.

Tier 1direct: glucose, acetone, CO₂, urea

Tier 2proxies: isoprene, oxidative VOCs

Tier 3patterns: ML for sepsis risk, metabolic state

Path to the clinic

A disciplined route to the bedside.

Medical use is the longest road and the largest prize. The platform is built so research data, clinical validation and regulatory submissions all come from the same instrument architecture.

Step 1

Research use

Instruments for academic and hospital partners, building breath, urine and blood datasets.

Step 2

Clinical validation

Studies against reference methods (GC-MS, lab chemistry, culture) for chosen indications.

Step 3

Regulatory clearance

FDA submissions for specific, validated tests, one indication at a time.

Step 4

Reimbursement + scale

Billing codes and the floor-wide architecture that makes each test inexpensive.

Background reading

What the field has shown.

Selected published work on mid-infrared and laser spectroscopy for breath and headspace analysis. These are studies by other groups, listed for context.

Applied Physics B · 2018Laser spectroscopy for breath analysis: towards clinical implementationHenderson et al. Review of breath biomarkers, detection limits and the steps still needed for clinical use. Sensors · 2009Breath analysis using laser spectroscopic techniques: biomarkers, spectral fingerprints and detection limitsWang and Sahay. Fingerprint bands and detection limits for dozens of breath molecules. Clinical studyMultiple breath biomarkers of asthma and COPD (NO, CO₂, CO, N₂O) by infrared laser spectroscopyQuantum-cascade-laser measurements in 173 adults and children with asthma or COPD. OSA Continuum · 2019Sensitive acetone detection with a mid-IR interband cascade laser and wavelength modulation spectroscopyICL plus WMS for acetone, the diabetes and ketosis breath marker. Analytical Chemistry · 2025Infrared spectroscopic profiling of volatile metabolites from uropathogenic bacteriaBasic investigations toward rapid UTI diagnostics from headspace gases. Biosensors · 2020Sniffing out urinary tract infection: diagnosis based on volatile organic compoundsReview of urine-headspace VOC approaches to UTI diagnosis.

More applications

Same engine, other missions.

N₂O · CH₄ · NH₃ · H₂O · COEnvironmentalGreenhouse gases, methane leaks, hydrogen purity and toxic gases, from a tower, a drone or a pipe.Open →CWA · TIC · NO₂ groups · fentanylDefenseIdentify the molecule, not just an alarm: chemical threats, explosives, narcotics, stand-off.Open →QCL · ICL · HgCdTe · WMSPlatformThe lasers, detectors, Herriott cells and algorithms behind every application.Open →

Mid-infrared spectroscopy · IMS with SRI International

Help us bring the lab to the bedside.

IMS builds the system, the software and the application. SRI International builds the lasers and detectors with us in Princeton. Tell us the molecule, the matrix and the setting.

Start a spectroscopy program U.S. Patent 11,953,434 ↗