Coffee and cancer mortality

Posted on October 2, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Coffee has been a really important component of human diet and has been known the acute effect that maybe harmful on human health. As we know, coffee also contains beneficial compounds such as antioxidants, though the net effect of coffee on human health is also uncertain.

Recently, there is an organization which is called “JACC” in Japan. They assessed to the association of coffee with the all-cause and total cancer mortality. They followed up 110792 subjects aged 40-79 at baseline by conducting a large-scale cohort, aand then grouped them into four categories according their daily coffee intake: consuming less than 1 cup, 1 cup, 2 or 3 cups, and 4 or more cups. They also adjusted the other factors which maybe associated with the cancer mortality and coffee consumption such as smoking status, drinking status, and sleep length. The linear trend in the risk of mortality was assessed by treating the number of cups of coffee intake per day as ordinal variable. Further analysis stratified by baseline age in addition to gender was also conducted.

After they followed up for 16 years, the results showed the mortality was decreasing with the increased coffee consumption in both men and women. However, in women there was a slight risk elevation at the highest coffee consumption level compared with the second level. The result of further analysis, with exclusion of those with past medical history or those died early, th erisk of cancer mortality did not show any association with coffee comsumption in men, but was slightly reduced with increasing coffee consumption in women. The results also indicated the women aged 40-59 at baseline showed a slightly non-significant decreasing trend with the increasing coffee intake. However, the women aged 60-79 showed the risk reduction was only at the 2nd and 3rd level.

Youwen Zhang
Oct 2nd, 2016

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Helium: A Shortage?

Posted on October 1, 2016 by | Leave a comment

At an atomic number of two, helium is known most commonly for floating party balloons and producing hilariously high pitched voices, but the noble gas is not often thought of as a non-renewable resource.

Balloons

Party balloons are possibly the most well known use of helium. Credit to HilkeFromm (link)

Aside from parade balloons, helium gas is used in a variety of practical ways from weather balloons to leak detection. Being inert and non-toxic, helium is also used to pressurize scuba diving and rocket fuel tanks and has applications in welding.

However, the most significant property of helium is its cooling ability. With a boiling point of 4.2K, liquid helium is one of the coldest liquids known to science. Employing a pump, one can further cool liquid helium by reducing pressure and upon reaching 2.17 K, helium becomes a superfluid, allowing for very high thermal conductivity and zero viscosity.

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This property makes helium essential in the creation of superconducting magnets, such as those found in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, and the in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners.

CERN's Large Hadron Collider. Credit to: Thomas Cizauskas, flickr, October 11, 2014 (link)

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Credit to: Thomas Cizauskas, flickr, October 11, 2014 (link)

On Earth, helium is produced underground by the radioactive decay of heavy metals. This process is known as alpha decay and emits a helium nucleus (two neutrons and two protons), which gains two electrons and forms Helium-4. Next to hydrogen, helium is second most abundant element in the universe, but unfortunately it’s quite rare on Earth.

Credit to: Wikimedia Commons, Nov. 3, 2005

The Bohr model of a Helium Atom. Credit to: Wikimedia Commons, Nov. 3, 2005 (link)

This is because helium’s low mass allows it to escape Earth’s atmosphere and into outer space. Because of this, helium is only found trapped underground and is often mined together with deposits of natural gas. With no way of producing more, our access to the precious gas is finite and until recently scientists believed the world would run out with the next 25 to 30 years. The worlds largest supply of helium is in Amarillo, Texas with the Federal Helium Reserve which was stockpiling helium from 1925 until 1996 when the decision was made to sell it. While the scarcity of the gas has many worried, this flooding of the market resulted in helium’s rarity being poorly reflected in its price.

Fortunately, a new, massive deposit of helium was recently discovered in the Tanzanian East African Rift Valley. While this new reservoir brings relief to science and industry, it will only prolong the worlds helium shortage. Helium remains a limited resource, and should be conserved and recycled when possible, or we might find ourselves running out again.

– Kevin O’Connor (revised Oct. 13, 2016)

References:

What is the most abundant element? http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/periodic/faq/what-element-is-most-abundant.shtml (accessed October 1, 2016)

Cryogenics: Low temperatures, high performance. CERN. https://home.cern/about/engineering/cryogenics-low-temperatures-high-performance (accessed October 1, 2016)

Helium. Royal Society of Chemistry. http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/2/helium (accessed October 1, 2016)

Magill, B. As Shortage Worsens, We Visit the Federal Helium Reserve. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a8289/as-shortage-worsens-we-visit-the-federal-helium-reserve-14720528/ (accessed October 1, 2016)

Harvey, C. The world is running dangerously low on helium. This discovery reinflates our supply. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/28/the-world-is-running-dangerously-low-on-helium-this-discovery-reinflates-our-supply/?utm_term=.62a6d2408852 (accessed October 1, 2016)

What Happens If We Run Out Of Helium? Dominguez, Trace. Dnews, YouTube.com. 19 July 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCorxPmmLa8 (accessed October 1, 2016)

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The Truth Behind Silver and Titanium Oxide Nanoparticles

Posted on September 26, 2016 by | 1 comment

Commercial products, such as cosmetics and paints (4), contain titanium oxide (TiO2) nanoparticles; antimicrobial agents, fabrics, and food preservatives (5) contain silver (Ag) nanoparticles.  Nanoparticles, synthetically made molecules that range in size from 1 nm to 100 nm (5), are found in every day household items.

clustered_titanium_oxide_nanoparticles_on_stainless_steel_-_3

Titanium Oxide Nanoparticle on Stainless Steel (Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Common; Author: Iuliia Karlagina; Source: Picture Uploaded by Original Photographer)

A recent publication in the Journal of Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology by researchers at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan revealed the potential risks that nanoparticles of TiO2 and Ag as well as Ag+ ions pose to the blood-brain barrier of animal cells (2). Chen and fellow colleagues (2) simulated the conditions of the blood-brain barrier in vitro. As illustrated in the figure below, the blood brain barrier is a highly selective membrane that only allows specific molecules, such as glucose and insulin, and ions to pass between the blood and the brain (1).

blood-brain-barrier

Blood-Brain Barrier (Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; Authors: Helen Stolp, Shane Liddelow, Ines Sa-Pereira, Katarzyna Dziegielewska, Norman Saunders; Source: Journal Article)

The study (2) concluded that silver nanoparticles not only affect the selectivity of the blood-brain barrier, but it can lead to a higher likelihood of genetic mutations and even cell death. Due to the small size of silver nanoparticles (8.4 nm) and TiO2 nanoparticles (6 nm) (2), they were able to bypass the selective membrane and enter into the central nervous system.  Furthermore, the silver ions and titanium oxide nanoparticles can alter the permeability of the blood-brain barrier by cell-to-cell interactions, known as cytokine secretions (2). This effect is further intensified in the presence of lipopolysaccharide, which is a type of molecular marker found on the surface of gram-negative bacteria (6). Their findings suggest that when we are pre-exposed to TiO2 and/or Ag nanoparticles while fighting a bacterial infection, our bodies will elicit an immune response that can be detrimental to our brain-blood barrier (2).

This study provides a stepping stone for future studies to be performed in determining the potential health risks associated with other types of inorganic or synthetic nanoparticles, commonly found in commercial products. Personally, for the safety and well-being of people, re-establishment of national and global guidelines on the commercial use of nanoparticles is necessary.

–Gloria Kwong

References

  1. Abbott, N. J., Patabendige, A. A. K., Dolman, D. E. M., Yusof, S. R., & Begley, D. J. (2010). Structure and function of the blood–brain barrier. Neurobiology of Disease, 37(1), 13-25.
  2. Chen, I.-C.; Hsiao, I.-L.; Lin, H.-C.; Wu, C.-H.; Chuang, C.-Y.; Huang, Y.-J. Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology 2016, 47, 108–118.
  3. Clett Erridge, Elliott Bennett-Guerrero, Ian R. Poxton, Structure and function of lipopolysaccharides, Microbes and Infection, Volume 4, Issue 8, July 2002, Pages 837-851, ISSN 1286-4579.
  4. Gupta, S.; Tripathi, M. Open Chemistry 2012, 10 (2).
  5. Rai, M.; Yadav, A.; Gade, A. Biotechnology Advances 2009, 27 (1), 76–83.
  6. Stow, J. L.; Low, P. C.; Offenhäuser, C.; Sangermani, D. Immunobiology 2009, 214 (7), 601–612.

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Bacteriophages: A Possible Alternative to Antibiotics?

Posted on September 26, 2016 by | Leave a comment

What would happen if we ran out of antibiotics to use against bacteria? Antibiotic resistance is known to be one of the major concerns among doctors and scientists around the world since, it’s our primary defense against bacterial infections. Without these antibiotics, it’d be virtually impossible to treat many types of diseases or even perform surgeries.

The quality of healthcare has significantly improved over the centuries as more people have access to treatment, medicine, and antibiotics. However, it has also increased the risk of wrong applications of drugs, allowing the bacteria to develop defense mechanisms to different types of antibiotics. In fact, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of scientific reports about different drugs resistance cases.

Antibiotic resistance occurs through process known as ‘Natural Selection’, where the bacteria has evolved and is no longer affected by the antibiotics. A stand-out candidate as an alternative for antibiotics is known as bacteriophages.

‘Alternative treatments are urgently required and we are investigating one such treatment – the use of bacteriophage.’

  • Robert Atterbury, Phage Biotechnology, University of Nottingham.                             
Resistance bacteria survived the treatment of antibiotics, thus able to reproduce and increase in numbers.

Resistance bacteria survived the treatment of antibiotics, thus able to reproduce and increase in numbers. <http://www.reactgroup.org/toolbox/mutation-and-selection/>. Photo credit: Uppsala University

‘Bacteriophage, or phage is a virus that infects bacteria, so these don’t infect human cells- they are specialised and only infect bacteria’

  • Brent Gilpin, Science Leader, Environmental Science Group, New Zealand.
Bacteriophage attached itself to the bacteria before releasing its DNA inside.

Bacteriophage attached itself to the bacteria before releasing its DNA inside. <http://www.news-medical.net/news/20151202/Bacteriophage-therapy-an-alternative-to-antibiotics-An-interview-Professor-Clokie.aspx>. Photo credit: News-Medical.net team

Bacteriophage or phage infects the bacterial cell by first recognizing the bacteria and then attaching itself to the bacteria’s surface (cell wall). After the phage has penetrated the cell wall, entering the bacteria, and it releases its DNA inside. This DNA merges itself with the bacterial DNA causing the bacteria to produce proteins for the phage. Other chain reactions occur which causes the bacteria cell to produce more phages and eventually bust out, causing the bacteria to die. – This process is shown in the following video:

‘Bacteriophage Life Cycle’

This method is currently being adopted by many industries including food protection against food-borne disease, and medical treatment for both animal and humans. Furthermore, there are many advantages in using phage therapy; for example the phages are target specific, thus only attacking bacteria with a certain structure. With the right phage, it’s harmless to humans and since, phage is found naturally throughout the environment, there are several types of phages that can be studied and used. In addition to this, phage can be genetically modified to reduce their side effects, harmful abilities, or any unnecessary features. With this, it’s possible that phages can be used as an efficient and effective treatment against bacteria.

I strongly believe that bacteriophage is a potential alternative for antibiotics due to its ability to target specific bacteria, its harmless nature to humans, and its ability to be genetically engineered. Moreover, it can also be used in many industries as a safety precaution, in medical treatments, or even scientific research.

 

Poramat Sucharit

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Black Holes Don’t Suck!

As a mega fan of sci-fi movies and astronomy I am always confronted with the bitter taste of space ignorance. One of the most common misconceptions–not only in sci-fi movies but also in our pop culture–is about black holes. Ever heard of the phrase “getting sucked into a black hole?”

Newton’s law of gravitation tells us that masses in gravitational fields orbit each other in ellipses, parabolas and hyperbolas. Notice how “sucking” isn’t on this list. So then what would really happen if you were to approach a black hole?

Before we can take this journey through space together, some elements need to be defined for the less nerdy astronomy readers.

Black holes are the remaining cores of massive stars. So, basically a lot of mass squeezed into a tiny space, which results in a strong gravitational pull. The escape velocity is the speed required to leave the orbit of an object. This depends on both the mass and the size of the object. The smaller the size of an object, the stronger the gravitational pull, and as a result a higher escape velocity would be required to leave the orbit.

On the left, an optical image from the Digitized Sky Survey shows Cygnus X-1, outlined in a red box. Cygnus X-1 is located near large active regions of star formation in the Milky Way, as seen in this image that spans some 700 light years across. An artist's illustration on the right depicts what astronomers think is happening within the Cygnus X-1 system. Cygnus X-1 is a so-called stellar-mass black hole, a class of black holes that comes from the collapse of a massive star. New studies with data from Chandra and several other telescopes have determined the black hole's spin, mass, and distance with unprecedented accuracy.

An artist’s drawing of the black hole Cygnus X-1, pulling in matter from a nearby blue star. (Credits: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)

So passing by a black hole you wouldn’t get sucked in, unless you were unfortunate enough to get pulled into its gravitational field. The escape velocity would be too high for you to ever be able to escape. In fact the gravitational pull is so strong that not even light can escape a black hole. Thus being given the name “black” hole.

It’s also interesting to note that people outside the black hole would never see you spiraling into the black hole. They would just see you suspended in space, stuck in time. To them, time would stop for you because of the significant increase in the force of gravity. So theoretically if you didn’t vanish from sight, you would never age to the people outside the black hole.

Now that we’ve taken this journey to the great unknown together, we can conclude that black holes don’t go around sucking up moons and stars like some cosmic vacuum.

Until our next journey, live long and prosper.

By: Flora Iranmanesh

Sources:

Bennet; Donahue; Schneider; Voit. The Cosmic Perspective: Stars & Galaxies; Pearson Learning Solutions, Boston, 2015; pp 211-212.

Weiss, M. Cygnus X-1. http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-a-black-hole-k4.html (accessed Sept 26, 2016). Credits: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss

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The Defense Mechanism of Plants

Posted on September 26, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Close your eyes and imagine your sun soaked skin embracing the warmth Vancouver has finally blessed you with, the gentle cool breeze dancing through your hair, and your feet standing on top of a luscious, emerald lawn. Go ahead, take a deep breath, the smell of freshly cut grass. The scent of summer.

Why is the scent of freshly cut lawns so pleasant? The answer is pheromones. Plants are able to communicate with each other by sending out pheromones—chemical messengers. Plant cells synthesize these chemical compounds and then release them into the environment to elicit a response in the times of distress.

One of the key chemicals that elicits the defense response in plants is Jasmonic Acid. This organic compound activates the production of other genes for defense.

Methyl Jasmonic Acid is a derivative of jasmonic acid; its role is to regulate the developmental process and defense responses of plants when stress is detected. Part of the defence mechanism is releasing pheromones into the air warning plants around them that danger is near. These pheromones released are organic volatile substances known as Green Leaf Volatile (GLV). They have aldehydes, alcohols, and ester functional groups, which produces that fragrant aroma that people so often associate with summer.

Volatile Organic Compounds       Credit: Materic, D. et al. phys.org

Methyl Jasmonic acid is synthesized through the octadecanoid pathway. The picture below shows a detailed reaction pathway to this compound.

meja

Biosynthesis of Methyl Jasmonic Acid        Credit: Cheong, J.J. and Choi, Y.D. , Trends in Genetics

Although these volatiles may come from the same or entirely different species, the presence of these chemicals increase defence compounds. When cell membrane receptors detect these volatile chemicals, it activates self-defence by producing toxins, such as proteinase inhibitor. Furthermore, some of these pheromones produced by plants are able to attract insects to help defend themselves. For example, some plants release a certain type of pheromones to attract wasps. These wasps lay their eggs in caterpillars and when these eggs are hatched, the larvae eat the caterpillar from inside out.

I find this defense mechanism of plants absolutely fascinating. Plants are able to defend themselves in certain ways humans and animals cannot. While animals have physical features such as sharp talons or claws, speed, enhanced senses, and humans have martial arts and the sympathetic nervous system that elicits the fight-or-flight response as a form to defense mechanisms, plants defend themselves with the power of chemistry!

So the next time you’re out on a stroll enjoying that summer evening and you hear the roar of your neighbour’s lawnmower, you now know that the fragrant cut grass scent that follows is actually their distress signal. While releasing a series of organic molecules into the air to warn their plant friends and neighbours, it serves as an aromatic treat for us humans.

This video provides a more general explanation of this topic:

Resources:

Reece, J.B. et al. Fundamental of Physiology, 2nd ed.; Pearson: Canada, 2014; pp 237-238.

Cheong, J.J.; Choi, Y.D. Methyl jasmonate as a vital substance in plants. TRENDS in Genetics. [Online] 2013, 7. 409-412. http://www.cell.com/trends/genetics/pdf/S0168-9525(03)00138-0.pdf (accessed Sept 23, 2016)

Phys.org. De-mystifying the Study of Volatile Organic Plant Compounds. http://phys.org/news/2016-01-de-mystifying-volatile-compounds.html (accessed: Sept 24, 2016)

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HEAVEN-GEMINI: First ever head transplant to be performed

Posted on September 25, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Dr. Sergio Canavero of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group (TANG) in Italy, is confident that he will be able to perform the worlds first ever head transplant. Set to occur in late 2017, Valery Spiridonov has volunteered to be the first person to undergo a head transplant. Mr. Spiridonov suffers from Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, a rare form of spinal muscular atrophy which is characterized by wasting of voluntary muscle. The success of this operation would allow Mr. Spiridonov to regain full muscular control.

In a paper published earlier this month, Dr. Canavero explains the steps for a successful transplant. The procedure would take a team of 150 medical professionals approximately 36 hours, and would begin by lowering the temperatures of the donor head and body to about 16 degrees Celsius to prevent cell death. The neck would then be cut, the arteries and veins connected by tubes and the spinal cord severed. A sharp cut- equated to a spinal cord injury is made between the C5 and C6 vertebrae. The head is then placed on the body and the spinal cords connected using polyethylene glycol (PEG), which fuses neuronal cell membranes. The remaining muscles and organs will be fused together and the skin stitched up.

Numbering of human vertebrae.

Numbering of human vertebrae. For head transplant, the cut will be made between the C5 and C6 vertebrae.                              Image courtesy of Mayfield Brain and Spine.

A head transplant was performed on mice and “the near-miraculous properties of PEG” provided recovery periods as short as 4 weeks (Ye et al. 2016). Dr. Canavero emphasizes the importance of the sharp spinal cord severance claiming that it will inflict “minimal damage to both the axons in the white matter and the neurons in the gray laminae” both of which are essential for survival post operation and for regaining voluntary muscle control.

Courtesy of Indiana State University.

Grey and white matter of the human vertebrae. With a precise cut, minimal damage will be inflicted, resulting in a successful recovery.                                             Image courtesy of Indiana State University.

The idea may seem far fetched but Dr. Canavero and his team are determined to accomplish this feat by the end of 2017. In the meantime, extensive cadaveric rehearsals and animal trials are being performed.

-Scarlett Liaifer

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Oxygen Water and Reasons to Avoid It

Posted on September 25, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Have you heard of “oxygen water?”  This self-explanatory product that you may have passed by unsuspectingly at a grocery store or a gas station contains higher levels of oxygen than normal water.  The manufacturers of oxygen water such as GP8 oxygen water and OXiGEN all claim their products have many health benefits, one of them being an improvement in an athlete’s performance; but is this true?  In short it isn’t.

OGO Oxygen Water, courtesy of Flickr Commons

Oxygen is an essential ingredient needed to generate energy in the human body.  When vigorously exercising, athletes are always in short of oxygen; therefore, they breathe heavier and faster to get more oxygen in their lungs.  What if there was an alternate way of getting oxygen inside your body than breathing?  Oxygen water manufacturers say that their products will increase the blood oxygen level because there is an extra supply of oxygen in the body from drinking oxygen-rich water.  Unfortunately, this is no where near the truth.

With the popularity of oxygen water growing in both professional and amateur athletes, a few teams of scientist decided to challenge the science behind oxygen water.  Dr. Piantadosi tested whether consuming oxygen benefited athletic performance or not.  The study concluded that oxygen water did not improve any athletic abilities and Dr. Piantadosi stated: “oxygenated water fails both quantitative analysis and practical physiological tests of exercise performance and recovery.”

Radical Oxygen, courtesy of Wikimedia

Oxygen Radicals, courtesy of Wikimedia

Another study investigated the effects of oxygen water but approached the subject slightly different.  Schoenberg et al. (2006) were determined to figure out if oxygen water was more harmful than beneficial.  The team suspected that drinking oxygen-rich water will generate oxygen radicals and when tested, they were right.  Oxygen radicals, which are unstable form of oxygen that damage or even kill our cells, were higher than normal in the volunteers who drank oxygen water up to 30 minutes after consumption.  From these results, it is clear that oxygen water should be avoided.  Unlike the claims made by the manufacturers, they do not enhance physical endurance or athletic ability and they do more harm than good.

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Techniques Preventing Cancer Metastasis in Development

Posted on September 25, 2016 by | Leave a comment

When I was 8 years old, my friend’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Several years later her aunt was also diagnosed with breast cancer. For my friend, developing cancer is not imminent, however the thought of developing cancer is a terrifying idea for her. There is no doubt that almost everyone knows someone in their life who has been diagnosed by cancer, whether it be a family member, a friend, or an acquaintance. In my opinion, to fight against cancer the only way is to entrust the development of cures to the scientific community.

Cancer is menacing disease caused via changes to genes that control the way cells function. In the 21st century cancer has been the most renowned disease. The mortality rate of this disease is no laughing matter as an estimated 1,685,210 patients will be diagnosed with cancer and of those, 595,690 will die during 2016 in the United States alone. While many researchers are feverishly looking for cancer cures that kills cancer, others have been investigating methods to halt cancer from spreading throughout a patient’s body. MIT’s Natalie Artzi, a research scientist at MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), and Tel-Aviv University’s Noam Shomrom have developed a new technique that may help prevent cancer metastasis.

Cancer Metastasis

Cancer Metastasis, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Metastasis is the spread of malignant cells from one organ or part of the body to another. Artzi and Shomrom’s new gene therapy technique involves applying microRNAs to cancer tumours. MicroRNAs are cellular RNA fragments that prevents the production of a particular protein. In their research Artzi and Shomrom identified that the protein Palladin plays a key role in the metastasis of breast cancer cells. Their experiments led to the discovery that miR-96 and miR-182, types of microRNAs, decreased the expression of Palladin, thus hampering the cancer cells capabilities to spread.

microRNA

microRNA, courtesy of Andres Zapata https://vimeo.com/52646065

 

With this new gene therapy technique in development, many types of cancers can be halted so long as the correct microRNAs are applied to the cancer sites. I  feel that this research is an immense step towards defeating cancer. Artzi and Shomon’s technique coupled with already known cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy,  can effectively halt the metastasis of early-stage cancer tumours. Thus, potentially saving thousands of patients in the United states, and millions around the world. Nonetheless, cancer would likely never be extinct until a definitive cure is found. However as members of the scientific community, we must do our best in following Artzi and Shomon’s footsetps by developing new techniques and treatments in hopes of saving the lives of people we know.

– Nelson Yu

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UBC Researcher Developing Marijuana Breathalyzer

Posted on September 25, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Earlier this year at UBC Okanagan’s Advanced Thermo-Fluidic Laboratory, engineering professor Mina Hoorfar and PhD student Mohammad Paknahad developed a breathalyzer for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana. While attempting to make an affordable miniature gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) device, it occurred to them that, with marijuana becoming legalized in more parts of the world every year, there was a growing market they could to tap into. When testing out their device as a THC detector was a success, they started to develop their device specifically as a marijuana breathalyzer.

Unlike traditional breathalyzers, this device utilizes GC-MS and a computer, and is therefore highly adaptable – it can easily be used to search for concentrations of a variety of chemicals. Some other uses they’ve thought of for the device include analyzing the characteristics of wine, checking your own blood alcohol content, monitoring glucose levels in diabetic people, and finding gas leaks along pipelines.

Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry schematic, courtesy of Wikimedia

Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry schematic, courtesy of Wikimedia (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Gcms_schematic.gif) Gas is injected into the column, where it sorts itself into groups based on properties such as polarity and molecule size. The groups of molecules pass through the mass spectrometer, which analyzes how much of each chemical there is.

Mina Hoorfar specializes in microfluidics, the field of manipulating tiny amounts of gas and liquid using their chemical properties. In this device, the exhaled breath is channeled through a column that is only one micrometer thick, where the chemical components are separated by their properties and analyzed using the same processes as in regular GC-MS. The results are then sent via Bluetooth to a computer or smartphone, showing the user exactly what is in their breath. The device would cost about $15 to build – incredibly cheap for a GC-MS device, which often cost thousands of dollars – and Hoorfar says that she is working with a lab instrument company to bring the device to the market.

~ Nat Shipp

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