the invention that wants to simplify the lives of diabetics

The number of diabetics is constantly increasing around the world. In California, a Frenchman has developed a device capable of reading the sugar level of patients, simply by analyzing their breath and the air they exhale.

There are nearly 4 million identified in France, not counting all those who know nothing about their illness. Until now, a diabetic had to prick his finger at regular intervals to know his blood sugar level and adjust his treatment if necessary. This could quickly change thanks to research carried out by the company run in San Francisco by Bruno Thuillier.

“What we are proposing is to replace this operation with a much simpler operation, where it is simply a matter of blowing between three and five or six seconds. We are going to come and analyze the last part of the breath because she is the richest, without you having to prick your finger.”

Created by the Frenchman a few years ago in California, BOYDSense, that’s its name, has built its reputation on the development of electronic noses, used in particular in the food industry. It thus won a contract in China, to test the quality of millions of liters of milk each year.

The principle is the same for diabetes with the study of volatile organic compounds, he explains: “You have to imagine very small molecules, it’s about 100 times smaller than a virus. You find them in a steak or in fries, or in a soda. There are also some that are generated by your cells and rises in the blood, then passes into your lungs and ends up in the exhaled air.

Like a breathalyzer, it is then sufficient to measure in what quantities these molecules are present, to deduce the correlation with blood sugar, the sugar content, present at the moment T in the patient. The company has identified around twenty of these gaseous compounds.

A project well advanced

Mathematics, statistics, organic chemistry: if they seem simple to a novice, these measurements are sophisticated, and require many different skills. For the patient, reading is done via an application directly, instantly, on the screen of their smartphone. The measurement can also make it possible to judge the effectiveness of medications and treatments followed by the patient.

BOYDSense has been working on the project for eight years. Two clinical studies have already been carried out, one in France with the Toulouse University Hospital, and the other in England. The project is now well advanced, assures Bruno Thuillier: “We have prototypes which were provided to the university hospitals which worked day after day, without intervention, which were used by nurses, without any training. So we are not in prototypes which are very far from the product. So It shows a certain level of maturity.”

Go further

His company BOYDSense in California

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