Researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology built a chemiresistor based sensor array based on functionalized gold nanoparticles to detect volatile organic compound (VOC) associated with lung cancer directly from exhaled breath unconcentrated samples. The article appeared in the October 2009 issue of Nature Nanotechnology (Vol 4, No 10). The article is is titled Diagnosing lung cancer in exhaled breath using gold nanoparticles.

The researchers cataloged 42 different VOCs from both healthy patients and cancer patients to determine which VOCs indicate the presence of lung cancer tumors (i.e. identify biomarkers). The chemiresistor sensor array was then configure with the proper functionalization to detect nine biomarkers selected as the best indicator of a tumor. The sensor proved to a very good selectivity. The paper is a very good read.