Business Cloud: Could Owlstone detect TB & HIV from breath?

Backed by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to explore potential for rapid screening and earlier diagnosis in developing world

Owlstone Medical has secured £5.2 million to explore a path by which breath-based testing could be deployed in the early detection of infectious diseases.

The Cambridge firm has raised £4m in equity investment while £1.2m grant funding has also been committed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop breath-based diagnostics and identify breath biomarkers for tuberculosis (TB) and HIV.

Owlstone, with support from the foundation, is interested in developing new cost-effective detection technologies for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that could serve as markers of diseases that disproportionately affect the developing world.

With the new funding, Owlstone seeks to understand whether this approach is suitable for TB and HIV detection and to explore a path by which breath-based testing could be deployed for rapid screening and earlier diagnosis.

“Early diagnosis is a critical determinant of health outcomes. By enabling swift and non-invasive detection of disease, breath analysis has the potential to save lives and dramatically reduce the burden of illness in resource-constrained settings,” said Billy Boyle, co-founder and CEO.

“This investment by the Gates Foundation is testament to how Owlstone is uniquely positioned to transform infectious disease diagnosis through our Breath Biopsy platform. The funds will accelerate both the discovery and validation of VOC biomarkers, and the development of a fieldable, low cost, simple to use device.”

The grant funding will be used across two projects. In partnership with the University of Cape Town, South Africa, Owlstone aims to identify a panel of on-breath candidate VOC biomarkers that differentiate TB subjects from healthy controls and to develop breath diagnostic approaches based on exploiting the metabolic features of TB using in vitro approaches.

Working with investigators from Imperial College and Oxford University, Owlstone will analyse VOCs from blood samples from subjects with HIV and will work to identify a panel of on-breath candidate VOC biomarkers that correlate with HIV viral load.

In both areas, the data collected will also be used to further populate Owlstone’s Breath Biopsy VOC Atlas.