Professor Lan Fu is waiting for a call from the hospital about someone ill with diabetes.

It’s not a sick friend or family, but the first patient in her first pilot clinical study of the Ketowhistle breath test.

The Ketowhistle is a ground-breaking device that can detect the tell-tale signs of diabetes – and other diseases – from the gases we exhale.

Professor Fu’s career in nanotechnology, combining a knowledge of quantum physics with exquisite fabrication techniques to design structures many times smaller than the point of a syringe, has led her to this point.

“I’m interested in fundamental research, I had no idea that I would change a person’s life in this way,” says Professor Fu, from the Department of Electronic Materials Engineering and the ARC Centre for Transformative MetaOptical Systems (TMOS).

“People are so passionate and excited about this project when I talk to them – they can so easily relate to it. Everyone knows someone with diabetes.”

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a life-threatening acute complication of diabetes, in which ketone molecules accumulate in the blood. A well-correlated fraction of these ketones are exhaled in the breath, giving an easy way to monitor the disease, and provide much better care than current urine or pinprick tests.

With such a beneficial product it is not surprising that there is a lot of interest.

Solentropy is a company that specialises in medtech commercialisation. Together with Professor Fu they have set up Ketone Innovation to focus on commercialisation of the Ketowhistle for medical applications.

From a different angle the company Agscent is working with Professor Fu to use the technology for monitoring cattle health – it promises a boost to dairy farmers needing to track the crucial nutrition levels of their herd, as they channel their calories into producing milk.

Solentropy, Agscent and Canberra Health Services partnered with the KetoWhistle team to win an Ignite grant for ~$500K from the Australian Economic Accelerator, to translate the technology to real applications.

“From an optoelectronics point of view we have a very good understanding of how to design a device that’s very sensitive to a surface interaction with gas molecules,” Professor Fu says.

“But to write a business case is a big learning curve – do you have a market, what’s the risk, how do you keep data secure, how’s it going to be engineered to work in the real world?”

“It’s a really important experience to find out what the real world is like, it’s quite different from your ideal lab-based study.

“People in industry have a very different perspective, they get you to broaden your thinking and consider practical things, that you then bring to your research design.”

As well as industry, Professor Fu is getting the medical perspective from endocrinologist Professor Christopher Nolan, now with Canberra Health.

Professor Nolan has been involved in the project since the very first collaborative ANU project, Our Health In Our Hands, received Grand Challenge funding in 2017, and then went on to win a seed funding from the Australian Centre for Accelerating Diabetes Innovations in 2023. As well as advice on the design and application of the device, he’s also opened the door to patients, and helped with the set up of the imminent clinical study.

Working with industry partners has been a good experience for Professor Fu.

“They are really collaborative and understanding, and they’ve given us lots of really good tips.”

As well as tips, Agscent have supported an industry partner PhD student, to work on animal health monitor.

“It’s a very important experience for students too, to work with the reports and deadlines that industry expect.”

Professor Fu says she sees herself moving back to research once the commercialisation is well underway, but would love some of her students to follow that path.

“Maybe one of my students will take on the journey of full commercialisation, and become the CEO of a company!” she says.

In fact the commercialisation process is what has fired up Professor Fu’s research inspiration, generating ideas for future directions.

“A lot has happened very quickly, and this focussed work has enabled us to overcome barriers and move our technology forward quickly.”

The fundamental technology has not changed – a nanowire sensor with a Schottky junction to enable sensitive and low power operation – but how to make it work in the real world has many challenges. Each human’s breath is a cocktail of molecules, including oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour, which all affect the sensor’s behaviour. This is the kind of problem machine learning could solve, Professor Fu hopes.

“I never thought I would need AI, as my sensor is so sensitive. But the more I do, the more I realise the limitations, and AI may help. This leads to exciting new directions for my research .”

Professor Fu encourages other researchers not to shy away from commercialisation, and she says she has been strongly supported by her talented team, from TMOS, the Research School of Physics, the ANU commercialisation team, and the Australian National Fabrication Facility.

“The journey is certainly worthwhile - I would encourage anyone who thinks their work has potential to give it a try!”