Start with your markers and your collection method
Two things decide whether an EBC study will work: your marker list, and how the samples are collected. Send us both, with your expected volumes. We will tell you what is detectable, what normalisation the study needs, and whether to pilot. One working day for a reply.
Sometimes the answer is that EBC will not carry the question. You will hear that early.
WHAT IS exhaled breath condensate
Airway biology, captured in exhaled breath
Exhaled breath condensate is the cooled, condensed liquid phase of exhaled breath.
Collected during tidal breathing through a cooled collection device, typically with a noseclip and saliva trap following ATS and ERS Task Force guidelines, EBC captures aerosolised airway lining fluid carried out with each exhalation.
What it carries
Respiratory biomarkers originating in the lower respiratory tract, including cytokines, chemokines, eicosanoids, leukotrienes, hydrogen peroxide, nitrogen oxides, CRP and other inflammatory and oxidative-stress markers.
Why the sampling matters
Collection is non-invasive, which opens study designs that are otherwise difficult or impossible:
Paediatric cohorts, with no invasive respiratory sampling
Longitudinal studies, where repeated measurement becomes practical
Occupational exposure monitoring, following airway biology over time
Large epidemiological studies, where sampling burden no longer limits scale
Studies where bronchoscopy or sputum induction is impractical or ethically constrained
THE CHALLENGE
EBC is extremely dilute
Most cytokines and chemokines in exhaled breath condensate sit near or below what standard immunoassays can detect. Getting a reliable signal takes the right sensitivity, and the right handling from collection onwards.
Conventional assays lose the signal
Conventional ELISA and standard multiplex platforms routinely return signal indistinguishable from background in EBC. The biology is not absent. For two decades the assays could not reach it. Ultra-sensitive platforms reach targets those assays could not.
Concentrating the sample creates a different problem
Historically the dilution problem has been managed by lyophilising, reconstituting and then measuring. That consumes material and adds a processing step that varies between operators and days. For a low-volume specialist matrix it is a poor analytical compromise.
Detect the biology where it sits
The answer is a platform sensitive enough to detect biomarkers at the concentrations they occur at, without manipulating the sample until a conventional assay can see it. NULISA, Simoa and MSD S-PLEX have all changed what is measurable in EBC.
Detectability depends on your study
How many analytes in a panel can be detected in exhaled breath condensate isn’t fixed. It depends on two things: whether samples are concentrated before measurement, and who you’re studying. An inflamed airway releases far more protein than a healthy one.
So a single published figure would mislead most people. Instead, we measure detectability on your own samples, with your protocol, before you commit a cohort.
Start with what you can detect, not panel size
In EBC, the number of targets on a panel matters less than which of your markers can actually be detected with your collection protocol. We find that out first, then measure those markers properly.
our approach
Clean collection and sensitive measurement, from one team
EBC research has been held back by two problems that must be solved together. A sensitive assay can’t rescue a contaminated sample, and a clean sample is wasted on an assay that can’t detect what’s in it.
We handle both.
1. Collect a clean sample
2. Measure at ultra-low levels
3. Get a clear signal
Why it matters
Because one team owns both the device and the analysis, collection is designed around what the assay needs. Our team is accountable end-to-end.
how it works
What you gain
Non-invasive
No bronchoscopy, no induced sputum, no sedation. Collection takes minutes of tidal breathing.
Airway-specific signal
Inflammatory mediators from the respiratory tract itself. A systemic blood readout may not reflect what is happening in the lung.
Deep-lung sampling, on our own device
PBM-Hale addresses the saliva and upper-airway contamination that has limited EBC reproducibility for two decades. We own the device, so the collection method and the analysis are designed together.
A validated EBC workflow
NULISA validation performed directly on PBM-Hale samples, in EBC itself.
Absolute quantitation
The Inflammation Panel 250 AQ reports concentrations in pg/mL for more than 150 markers, useful where variable droplet formation complicates relative comparison between individuals.
Longitudinal and paediatric potential
Repeated, low-burden sampling makes study designs viable that invasive methods rule out entirely.
Platform selection for EBC
What you can measure
Pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α
Th2 and asthma-associated cytokines IL-4, IL-5, IL-13
Regulatory cytokines IL-10
Chemokines CCL2/MCP-1, CCL3/MIP-1α, CCL4/MIP-1β, CXCL8/IL-8
Acute-phase markers CRP and others
Th17 pathway IL-17A, IL-22, where supported by the panel
Custom respiratory biomarkers Additional targets through custom assay development
Typical programmes
Asthma: airway inflammation phenotyping, exacerbation prediction, treatment response
COPD: chronic inflammation profiling and disease progression
Cystic fibrosis: airway inflammation and CFTR modulator response
Paediatric respiratory research, where non-invasive sampling is essential
Occupational respiratory disease: exposure monitoring and airway inflammation assessment
Lung cancer: airway inflammation signatures
Obstructive sleep apnoea and sleep-disordered breathing
Allergic rhinitis: upper-airway inflammation
Vaccines and immunotherapy: respiratory immune-response studies
HOW IT WORKS
Scope the matrix before the study runs
Every EBC project turns on four variables that determine what the resulting data can support. We settle all four before samples move.
Sample requirements
Collection device: PBM-Hale™ recommended for saliva-free deep-lung sampling. We will work with other collection systems, but tell us which at scoping, because it affects what the data can be compared against
Protocol: tidal breathing with noseclip and saliva trap, following ATS and ERS Task Force guidelines
Volume to ship: set by the assay rather than by the matrix. Ship what your assay requires plus roughly 10 µL of dead volume, so a repeat stays possible. EBC yields are small and vary between subjects, so we confirm the usable volume after processing at scoping
Processing: none required at the collection site. Freeze as collected
Aliquoting: single-use aliquots
Freeze and thaw: as few cycles as possible, and within the limit for the platform you will run: up to three to five cycles on NULISA depending on panel, three to four on Simoa, two on MSD. Tell us the history of archived material
Storage: −80°C
Shipping: on dry ice, with a manifest listing sample ID, volume, collection date, device used and collection duration
If your collection protocol is already fixed and validated, tell us what it is and we will design around it.
Receipt and condition are confirmed in writing within two working days, and nothing is consumed before that.
Shipping samples internationally
We can arrange collection and shipping, or work with your courier. Logistics, temperature control and documentation are confirmed at scoping, before any samples move.
We own the device, not just the analysis
Discuss your matrix with a scientist
Markers, collection method, volumes, cohort size: send those four and we will come back on feasibility, normalisation and platform choice before you commit anything.
If EBC is the wrong matrix for your question, we will say so.