A rapid point-of-care breath ammonia sensor for diagnosis of helicobacter pylori
Helicobacter pylori is classified by the World Health Organisation as a carcinogen leading to gastritis and gastric cancer, the second most lethal cancer. The biggest challenge is to identify the infection at an early stage and give a more complete intervention as more than 85% of infections are asymptomatic. This makes screening/ testing an important primary action in combating H. pyrlori and its life threatening effects. Current non-invasive diagnosis methods are based on radiolabelling and are costly, cumbersome to the technician, inappropriate for wide spread clinical use and time consuming in delivering test results.

AM-SENSE is a completely new and low-cost hand held electrochemical breathalyser device to efficiently and accurately measure the presence of ammonia in a person's breath to screen for H. pyroli giving ‘instant results’. Costs per test will decrease from an average of €60 to €9.50. The key markets for our product are Europe, Asia and the USA. We project, through manufacturing, retailing and licensing of AM-SENSE a turnover of €59 million in 5 years creating 35 new jobs. A sales forecast of 125,000 units has been set for the 5 year post commercialisation period. This will result in reduced gastric cancer incidence, cheaper and faster treatment for H. pyroli infection and lower all round societal cost.

In Phase 1 we intend to test AM-SENSE against gold standards and conduct a more intensified market study, tapping into the knowledge of breathalyser companies through partnerships.

In Phase 2 we intend to integrate the electrodes and electronics with the breath capture device into a single market ready prototype and validate with potential clients.