The Intelligent Monitoring Programme is seeking new biomarkers for diagnosing chronic airway diseases like COPD through a non-invasive approach. Researchers from the Universities of Helsinki and Turku are collaborating with industrial partners Orion Diagnostica and Medix Biochemica. They have identified 15 sputum proteins altered in smoking and mild COPD patients. The researchers hope to combine these markers into a diagnostic kit to predict disease progression and response to treatment in a less time-consuming way than current spirometry methods.