A person testing for COVID-19 would simply have to blow into a disposable mouthpiece connected to a “high-precision breath sampler”, said the university in a media release.A machine learning software subsequently analyses the VOC profile and generates the result in less than a minute.Breathonix is founded by Dr Jia Zhunan and Mr Du Fang . With them is NUS Senior Vice President Professor Freddy Boey .
VOCs are consistently produced by various biochemical reactions in human cells, explained Breathonix CEO Dr Jia Zhunan. “Our breath test is easy to administer and it does not require specially trained staff or laboratory processing,” he added.Currently, standard COVID-19 screening involves a swab test, which may be uncomfortable, and diagnosis using polymerase chain reaction tests can take a few hours.
The test, which uses in-built machine learning algorithms, achieved more than 90 per cent accuracy, with 93 per cent sensitivity.The clinical trial is ongoing and more tests are required to further improve the accuracy of the technology, said NUS.
Isarzli almost intern here 🤔