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Spring 2017 | By Dan Morrell

Let 麻豆精品 S檚 say you 麻豆精品 S檙e sick. It 麻豆精品 S檚 a fever you 麻豆精品 S檝e had for days. Maybe it 麻豆精品 S檚 a headache that is getting worse and worse. Or perhaps your vision is blurred. Some system in your body is offline, and it 麻豆精品 S檚 bad enough that you need professional advice.

You head to the doctor 麻豆精品 S檚 office, where a great hunt for the cause begins. Your temperature is taken; your blood is drawn. X-rays or maybe an MRI is ordered. So maybe more appointments, more waiting, all while whatever it was that brought you there in the first place continues unabated.

But what if there was a way to halt that hunt during the first visit to the doctor 麻豆精品 S檚 office? And what if the test took seconds to administer, involved no needles or claustrophobia-inducing medical equipment, gave results in milliseconds and wouldn 麻豆精品 S檛 tax your insurance or your wallet?

This is the 麻豆精品 S淛etsonian 麻豆精品 S� promise of the technology being developed by Konstantin Vodopyanov, 21st Century World Class Scholars Endowed Chair in Optics and Photonics. More than a decade ago, this laser specialist saw a way to use laser technology to find instant, actionable medical clues hidden in the unseen: your breath.

UCF Professor Konstantin Vodopyanov is developing a new laser that 麻豆精品 S檚 capable of scanning for diseases as quickly and easily as scanning a barcode.聽

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Scent has a long history as a medical diagnostic tool. Before the advent of molecular evaluation or invasive techniques, ancient Chinese healers would diagnose tuberculosis via a tarlike scent it gives off. Hippocrates sniffed patients 麻豆精品 S� breath for a fishy odor as a way to diagnose liver failure. In the late 1700s, John Rollo, surgeon general of the British Royal Artillery, noted that diabetes sufferers exhibited 麻豆精品 S渢he odor of decaying apples 麻豆精品 S� on their breath.

But these ancient methods have been getting a new look in the past decade. Breath tests for tuberculosis, lactose intolerance, gum disease, pneumonia and even some forms of cancer have been the subject of academic studies or even released to the market. Canine disease detection 麻豆精品 S� once anecdotal evidence 麻豆精品 S� has picked up academic acolytes and seen real-world applications, with dogs now being trained to paw their diabetic owners before a meter reading even shows danger.

The idea first hit Vodopyanov 麻豆精品 S檚 radar in 2000, when he was hired by the California startup Picarro 麻豆精品 S� a group of young Stanford Ph.D.s who were trying to develop a breath analysis test for ulcers. Vodopyanov 麻豆精品 S檚 charge was building a laser that would be specifically tuned to find the molecules indicative of the stomach sores.

He had studied physics as a student in Moscow, eventually finding a passion for lasers. 麻豆精品 S淚 started building my own laser on the first day of my master 麻豆精品 S檚 program, 麻豆精品 S� Vodopyanov says 麻豆精品 S� everything from the electrical engineering of the circuits to aligning the lenses and detectors. 麻豆精品 S淎t first, it was one day a week. Then two days a week. Then three days a week, 麻豆精品 S� he says with a laugh. He was hooked.

For years, Vodopyanov 麻豆精品 S檚 career alternated between the academic world and the private sector. After 14 years in teaching posts in Russia, Germany and the U.K., in 1999 he took a job at a company that was developing crystal technology for use in remote-sensing operations. Picarro was his next job, and he 麻豆精品 S檇 stay there for three years before heading to Stanford to do research.

But his experience at Picarro 麻豆精品 S� seeing the potential for biomedical applications of his laser work 麻豆精品 S� stuck with him. Two years later, in 2005, the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to researchers who found that short pulses of laser light would enable highly precise molecular measurements, and Vodopyanov had what he calls 麻豆精品 S渉is great inspiration. 麻豆精品 S� It was a chance to expand beyond the startup 麻豆精品 S檚 limited focus. He began working on a new kind of laser 麻豆精品 S� one that wouldn 麻豆精品 S檛 just try to find one molecule in someone 麻豆精品 S檚 breath but all of them.

Molecules in breath can arrive there from anywhere in the body. They all use the same public transportation system: your blood. Alcohol is a good example. It travels from your mouth to your stomach, where it is absorbed into the bloodstream. When the blood circulates to the lungs, it is exchanged with air and exhaled. ( 麻豆精品 S淧eople think Breathalyzers are measuring the amount of alcohol in the stomach, 麻豆精品 S� says Vodopyanov, so they 麻豆精品 S檒l try 麻豆精品 S� in vain 麻豆精品 S� to beat police Breathalyzers by 麻豆精品 S渆ating crazy foods. 麻豆精品 S�) The process for cancers involves a different, often more circuitous route, but the exchange in the lungs is the same.

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In previous methods of detection 麻豆精品 S� like the one employed at Picarro 麻豆精品 S� laser wavelengths were tuned to find a specific molecule. So it would help only if you knew you were looking for a specific type of disease. Vodopyanov uses the analogy of a checkout line at the grocery store: Every molecule has a bar code. The existing technology was using a scanner set to read just one of them. Vodopyanov spent the years after the Nobel announcement experimenting with how to develop a scanner that could read all of the bar codes at once.

By 2009, he had a breakthrough. After making a quick study of the biology involved 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S渢hat 麻豆精品 S檚 the most fun, when you learn something new 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S� he gave his first presentation at a breath analysis conference in 2010 to a warm reception. When he was hired by UCF in 2013, it was to continue his biomedical research.

These ideas have moved beyond theory. He and his colleagues are working on a prototype for a point-of-care device: The patient exhales in a tube, the doctor pushes a button to start the laser identification, and the measurements are fed into a computer for instant analysis.

麻豆精品 S淸It takes] maybe a millisecond, 麻豆精品 S� Vodopyanov says. (The tech seems far-fetched in context, but it 麻豆精品 S檚 actually pretty commonplace, he says. Your smartphone or social network already likely has some form of facial recognition, analyzing millions of pixels in less than a second. 麻豆精品 S淭his does the same thing, just in two dimensions. 麻豆精品 S�)

Then, a bit of code will translate those readings into coherent medical notes 麻豆精品 S� warnings, low counts, telltale signs. It 麻豆精品 S檚 the high-tech equivalent of the dog pawing its diabetic owner. 麻豆精品 S淏ut the dogs, they 麻豆精品 S檙e binary. It 麻豆精品 S檚 just a 麻豆精品 S榶es, something is wrong 麻豆精品 S� or 麻豆精品 S榥o, it isn 麻豆精品 S檛, 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S� he says. 麻豆精品 S淲e 麻豆精品 S檙e just trying to outperform dogs. 麻豆精品 S�

It 麻豆精品 S檚 a modest appraisal that he delivers with a laugh, but he readily offers the truth about the work: 麻豆精品 S淲e 麻豆精品 S檙e the only lab in the world that can do what we 麻豆精品 S檙e doing. 麻豆精品 S�

And while biomedical research has been an important first application, the device has the potential for broader impact. 麻豆精品 S淭his will prove to be a very important discovery, 麻豆精品 S� says Sergey Mirov, a physics professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and longtime Vodopyanov collaborator. Being able to rapidly detect chemical composition shows promise for everything from environmental monitoring to detecting oil pipe leaks. As a prototype, Mirov says, this can go anywhere 麻豆精品 S� dentist offices, airplanes, the space station. 麻豆精品 S淚t can be really, really global. 麻豆精品 S�

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The prototype refinement is ongoing. Vodopyanov makes the comparison between his lab 麻豆精品 S檚 current work and that of a solar cell engineer. 麻豆精品 S淸Engineers] are focused on improving efficiency 麻豆精品 S� on making a better solar cell, 麻豆精品 S� he says. 麻豆精品 S淪ame with us. 麻豆精品 S� He wants the prototype to be more sensitive, more efficient, maybe even shrunk to the size of an iPhone. There 麻豆精品 S檚 much to be done.

It 麻豆精品 S檚 hard not to daydream about the potential impact though. Think of the cost savings to patients spared expensive but irrelevant tests. And think of how useful, Vodopyanov says, this could be in developing countries, where hospitals and diagnostic tools are inaccessible to millions. 麻豆精品 S淲e are just on the cutting edge, 麻豆精品 S� he says. 麻豆精品 S淏ut if we 麻豆精品 S檙e successful, it is clear that this would be very widely used. 麻豆精品 S�

Asked how long it will be until the prototype is unveiled, Vodopyanov estimates a year or so. 麻豆精品 S淚t is like approaching the Wright brothers after their first flight and asking, 麻豆精品 S極K, how soon until we can load that with 300 people and fly it around the world? 麻豆精品 S� We just can 麻豆精品 S檛 be sure. But we 麻豆精品 S檙e ahead of the crowd. 麻豆精品 S�