BALTIMORE, MD – March 21, 2005 -- Researchers from Johns Hopkins
University are developing a novel method of testing exhaled
breath to detect infection rapidly after potential exposure to a
biological warfare agent. They report their findings today at
the 2005 ASM Biodefense Research Meeting. "We want to have a
tool that can help in the emergency room or first responders to
triage on site so that people who are infected can get treatment
first," says Joany Jackman, a researcher on the project. "It's
not so hard to sample breath from many people very quickly as it
is to draw blood." When exposed to disease causing organisms,
cells in the body release proteins, called cytokines, to help
the immune cells identify and fight the infection. Jackman and
her colleagues theorized that cytokines might work their way up
through the tissue until eventually they would be exhaled
through water vapor in the breath, and could be captured and
identified. "Old medical texts, in the days long before
sophisticated diagnostics, w