Small Business Innovation Research Program provides seed funding to fuel R&D for Zeteo
Tech’s Innovative Approach for Detecting Disease Markers in Human Breath.
Zeteo Tech, Inc. the biodefense and medical device company that has developed a
revolutionary new class of fieldable biological mass spectrometers and innovative human breath
detection technologies, has been awarded a National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious
Diseases (NIAID) Direct to Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for
$967,498, for the first year of a two year effort, totaling $1.9M, on “Noninvasive Diagnostic
Markers of Lower Respiratory Tract Infection in Mechanically Ventilated Patients”. Dr. Dapeng
Chen of Zeteo Tech, Inc. is the Principal Investigator for this grant.
The potential for human breath to serve as a non-invasive diagnostic tool has garnered
significant attention from healthcare professionals and industry experts alike. Lower respiratory
tract infections (LRTIs) are a common concern for ICU patients, particularly those with
mechanical ventilators. Zeteo Tech, Inc., in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Hospital, will
investigate whether truncated proteoforms in human exhaled air can serve as a non-invasive
diagnostic marker for LRTIs, and early prediction of LRTI in mechanically ventilated patients. If
successful, this breakthrough research will provide clinicians with a valuable tool for decision-making
regarding antibiotic treatment, resulting in improved patient outcomes and reduced exposure to harmful
antibiotic treatments.
“We are absolutely delighted to win this highly competitive award from NIAID for our research
directed toward breath-based detection and characterization of LRTI. Dr. Chen, his team at
Zeteo Tech, and collaborators from Johns Hopkins developed highly convincing evidence for
this approach, leading to this NIAID award, and we are pleased to now add ASELL, LLC to the
team to support our commercialization efforts. This work is a critical component in Zeteo Tech’s
drive to transition technology investments by the Department of Defense and Department of
Homeland Security into medical tools that will revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of lung
infections. Beyond LRTI, we expect these tools to evolve into platforms for point-of-care
diagnosis and assessment of multiple disease states and conditions.” said Wayne Bryden,
President and CEO of Zeteo Tech, Inc.
The work in this press release is supported by the National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases of the
National Institutes of Health under Award Number R44AI177245. The content is solely the responsibility of the
authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health