Louisville, KY-based Breath Diagnostics has patented its OneBreath technology for early lung cancer detection using the patient’s breath. As CEO Rick Rummel explained in an e-mail, after a patient breathes into a bag, cancer signature compounds are concentrated onto a microchip before being washed off and measured using mass spectrometry.

This allows analysis accuracy on a parts-per-billion level, and OneBreath has been used with more than 700 patients, according to the company’s website.

Breath Diagnostics was one of eight finalists in the Health and Wearable Technologies category of the SXSW Accelerator competition.

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