Savage Native Developing Tungsten Oxide Sensor Breath Test for Diabetics

Savage native Mike Johnson is among scientists who believe that nanomaterials are the next big — well, actually, extremely small — thing in engineering.

Nanomaterials work on the scale of 1 to 1,000 nanometers, which are roughly 100,000th the thickness of this newspaper page, according to the National Nanotechnology Initiative. There are over 25 million nanometers in an inch. Johnson is working with a team of researchers to apply this kind of technology to a new method that could give diabetic people a painless, inexpensive way to monitor blood sugar by analyzing their breath. He said it might also prevent at-risk individuals from ever becoming diabetic.

“I think it’s really cool because we are creating new, innovative devices that are really going to help improve people’s lives — especially those that have afflictions such as diabetes,” Johnson said.

Johnson is a second-year doctoral student at North Dakota State University, where he is studying nanomaterials in the university’s nanoelectronic sensor and device lab. A Savage native, he attended Harriet Bishop Elementary, Eagle Ridge Middle School and Burnsville High School before graduating with a degree in chemistry from the College of St. Scholastica.

In 2016, researcher Danling Wang joined NDSU’s electrical and computer engineering department and launched the nanoelectronic sensor and device lab. Wang said she began creating the breath-analyzer while she had gestational diabetes during pregnancy. Her research had been focusing on how sensors could be used in pollution monitoring, but her need to undergo constant needle pokes sparked an interest in how the technology could be applied in a way that would improve life for diabetics.

“Maybe we can develop some type of device that’s completely painless and cheaper too,” Wang recalled telling her advisor. “That gave me some very exciting ideas.” She said that nanotechnology has developed rapidly over the past 20 years. The development of nanotechnology has allowed devices, such as iPhones, to become more compact and cheaper. “That’s all because of nanotechnology,” she said.

tungsten trioxide photo

Around two years ago, Wang synthesized a new nanomaterial for the breath test. Once at NDSU, Wang formed a research team with Johnson and doctoral student Razuan Hossain to continue developing the device.

Johnson said the material used in the device belongs to the family of tungsten oxide. It includes tungsten, or the metal found in some light bulb filaments, and oxygen, with atoms of potassium added here and there. The lab makes the material into rods a few nanometers thick and long, which gives lots of surface area in a small space for catching acetone — a biomarker that is elevated in diabetic people.

Hossain brings a background of circuit design to research how to make the device more compact. Johnson brings his chemistry background into the lab to find better ways to make the nanomaterial used in the device. “Nanomaterial is a very powerful material,” Wang said. “It can be used for many different purposes.” Wang said that breath tests have been around for awhile, such as breathalyzers used by law enforcement. What’s innovative about their device is the use of the new nanomaterial.

Johnson said his time working with the materials in the lab involves a lot of trial and error. One challenge is making a sensor that is extremely sensitive yet durable. They’ve created sensors that wear out but continue working for a few years. “With any new material, it doesn’t always work the exact way you want it to,” he said, adding the team’s focus now is making the material sensitive enough to detect the right molecule among hundreds of millions of others. “So it’s very small, trace amounts of chemical on the breath that we are trying to get without sensing anything else.”

Individuals in the pre-diabetic stage have been able to combat diabetes with diet and lifestyle changes, Johnson said. The team hopes the breath test device could provide information to help prevent an individual from ever becoming diabetic. A blood test measure blood glucose levels would still be used to diagnose diabetes. “It’s a less invasive way to determine if preventative measures or further diagnostics are needed,” he said.

The team also hopes to integrate the technology into a smartphone app that would give diabetics a painless, inexpensive way to monitor their blood sugar. They hope the device will soon be able to move into clinical trials, eventually become patented and hit the market. “There’s definitely other research utilizing other materials to the same effect, but the material we are studying is unique to our group,” Johnson said.

While the team has already published journals on the material, they are keeping quiet on the process for making it until it’s patented.

Johnson is in his second year of the program and plans to graduate in two or three years. After NDSU, he hopes to find more hands-on experience in the industry before pursuing his goal of creating a start-up company to bring his own product ideas to life. “He’s done a very good job; he’s a very fast-learning person, and I can feel he’s very interested in the nanomaterials,” Wang said about working with Johnson.

Besides successfully making the nanomaterial used in the breath test, Johnson is also working a new two-dimensional nanosheet that can be applied to cancer treatment.

“Nanotechnology is a big, emerging field,” he said. “It’s everywhere.”

 

 

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