Ekips Technologies Receives $500,000 NSF Phase II Grant for Continued R&D of Laser-Based Asthma Detection and Treatment Monitoring System

National Science Foundation supports continued development of laser-based breath analyzer technology

NORMAN, Okla. (November 10, 2003) - Dr. Patrick McCann, founder andpresident of Ekips Technologies, Inc., announced today the company has received a $500,000 Phase II grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for continued hardware and software development of the company's flagship product The BreathmeterTM (www.breathmeter.com), a laser-based breath analysis instrument that can be used to diagnose chronic illnesses such as asthma. Ekips research and product development was noted in a recent Wall Street Journal article on the potential of breath analysis in non-invasive medical diagnostics and individualized medicine.

"The main objective of Phase I was to demonstrate a laser-based instrument designed for monitoring airway inflammation in a clinical setting. Our goal during Phase II is to reduce the size and cost of the Breathmeter and make it even more effective in diagnosing asthma in young children," says McCann, an MIT graduate and professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. "This next phase should help get the Breathmeter technology into clinical use as soon as possible so that people who suffer from asthma, especially young children, will benefit from better diagnosis and ongoing monitoring."

According to McCann, the company achieved several key milestones during Phase I including:

• Demonstrating a portable, semi-compact prototype at major pulmonary research conferences.
• Obtaining approval for human subject testing from the Institutional Review Board at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center.
• Performing pre-clinical studies in partnership with the Oklahoma chapter of the American Lung Association, The Lung Center of Norman and the Oklahoma Allergy & Asthma Clinic.

While validated for several years in Europe, breath analysis is gaining greater acceptance in the American medical community. In July 2003, The United States Federal Drug Administration published guidelines for clearance of breath analysis instruments.

"Recent advances in tunable infrared laser technology now allow the design of robust, highly sensitive and accurate systems to measure trace chemicals," says Charles E. Kolb, Ph.D., President of Aerodyne Research, Inc., Billerica, Mass., and one of the world's leading experts on laser spectroscopy. "This provides exciting new applications such as diagnostic breath analyses in medicine, trace contaminant sensing for industrial processes, and environmental pollutant monitoring."