November 18, 2001
Norman Transcript
Randall Turk

Someday anyone will be able to blow into a “breathmeter” and know without doubt he is not suffering the first stages of cancer, diabetes, or some other chronic disease.
Now imagine that this small, remarkable diagnostic device will be kept at home and cost less than a kitchen appliance.
That day may not be so far away, an OU electrical engineering professor believes.
Patrick McCann is chief technical officer and CEO of “Ekips,” a Norman company that produces laser spectroscopes for breath analysis. The devices identify levels of various compounds in breath gases that can indicate early stage diseases.
Ekips was born when state voters approved State Questions 640 and 641, permitting university researchers to create spinoff companies that use university-based research to make and market real world products and services. American consumers will benefit greatly from such technology conversion, McCann says.
His breathmeter uses a mid-range infrared laser on a semiconductor chip the size of a grain of salt. The laser shoots light through various breath gases, which absorb the light at different rates measured by a detector. A computer is used to identify levels of the breath’s molecular components. Software was written to automatically interpret the data, showing levels of organic chemicals that can indicate the early signs of maladies such as ulcers, kidney and liver disease, and even schizophrenia.
In a related project, OU physics/astronomy professor Michael Santos heads a lab that grows the tiny semiconducting crystals for the lasers in a “molecular beam epitaxy” machine. The huge machine was funded by a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation and a state appropriation of another $1.2 million.
“Laser technology is about 25 years old, but not much research has been done on it,” McCann said. Computers are just now becoming powerful enough to work in tandem with laser spectroscopes. The breathmeter being developed is “very efficient, very fast,” he said. “We can design experiments much more quickly. Each test is non-invasive and takes only a couple of minutes.”
McCann said he has begun clinical trials using the laser spectrometer breath analyzer to detect the first signs of lung cancer. “We hope to provide earlier diagnosis of cancer” he said. “Now there is no good test for lung cancer. Probably 34 percent of the population is at high risk for it.”
But currently, McCann sees the first practical use of the breathmeter in detecting lung inflammation that leads to asthma.
The breath of asthmatics contains two to three times the level of nitric oxide found in non-asthmatics. In the lungs, higher levels of nitric oxide inflame cells and create problems with breathing. The breathmeter has been 100 percent specific in clinical trials to find nitric oxide in the breath, measured in parts per billion. The machine also can read the effects of medication on asthmatics to determine the most effective quantities required to manage the disease.
McCann said there are no effective methods to diagnose nitric oxide levels in children. Studies indicate two-thirds of children under 10 with asthma are under diagnosed or not diagnosed with the disease. He said asthma kills about 5,500 children and young people a year.
Some other applications for the machine include measuring ammonia levels to determine liver function and elevated levels of carbon disulfide that indicate coronary disease or mental illness.
McCann, with graduate degrees from MIT and the University of California at Berkeley, has devoted 12 years to the laser spectrometer project. He came to OU in August, 1990. “Oklahoma is a real frontier for entrepreneurship,” he said. “There’s more room and flexibility to try something a little different.”
But he said there are few research professors at OU compared to Berkeley and MIT, so collaboration with physicists, chemists, material scientists and physicians is necessary for “cutting edge research.”
Ekips is being funded by the Oklahoma Life Sciences Fund managed by ChisolmPrivate Capital, an Oklahoma City private partnership that invests in early stage companies.
There are developments on several fronts. The laser spectrometer breathmeter is undergoing FDA trials that will take about a year. In the interim, Ekips plans to build a plant in the NEDC Business Park to manufacture the devices.
The breath analyzer reads breath samples much like a CD player reads compact discs, McCann said. During the process, the presence of breath molecules at a specific wavelength create a “spike” on a computer display graph. Ekips is “spike” spelled backwards.
Today, one of the laser spectrometer breath analyzer units costs about $80,000, but McCann believes technology to improve the laser will drive the cost down to about $10,000 in just a few years.
In 20 years, the equipment could cost as little as $60, he said. The general plan is for Ekips to keep improving the laser and find new applications for it. Later other companies will be sought to manufacture and market the devices.
There will be many other applications for the laser spectrometers, McCann said. Some may include industrial monitoring, use in law enforcement to detect volatile chemicals, and even military chemical warfare.
“Our research can be accomplished much more quickly,” he said. “There is no shortage of volunteers.”
Business Editor Randall Turk can be reached at 366-3547 (voice), 366-3516 (fax) or by e-mail to business@normantranscript.com