The Moncton Cybersocial today will feature two intriguing new companies -- Picomole Instruments, whose device detects cancer through breath analysis, and The Corporate Trade Network, which offers a bartering service to corporations.

The Corporate Trade Network will actually launch its new trading platform from 2 to 5 pm today at the Moncton Club, 115 Queen St. The event will then morph into the monthly Cybersocial, which will take place from 5 to 7 PM, also at the Moncton Club.

Corporate Trade Network allows businesses to offer services instead of cash to one another to attract and retain new customers, save money, increase profits and access a new source of financing.

Co-Founder Don Houssen said yesterday the network is targeting mainly New Brunswick businesses and offers a service similar to that of Barter Atlantic in Dartmouth. The Moncton company now has 70 corporate clients and hopes to raise the number to 300 within two years.

Picomole was founded in Edmonton by Moncton native John Cormier, but he decided to bring the company back east in order to work with the Atlantic Cancer Research Institute. The company has developed LifeSens, a device similar to a breathalyzer except it detects cancer rather than alcohol. Picomole will begin clinical trials of LifeSens, which is designed for rapid point-of-care testing, at the Cancer Research Institute this month.

“Once we start to show clinical data showing what we can do then it’s going to be a whole different ball game for this company,” said Cormier in an interview.

Given that LifeSens is an instrument rather than a drug, it could go to market fairly quickly and cheaply. The clinical trials must show patient safety (pretty simple given that all you do is breathe into it) and efficacy. Cormier is confident of proving this second point because biomarkers revealing lung cancer are released when sufferers exhale.

LifeSens would allow doctors to quickly determine whether or not a person suffers from lung cancer. Someone testing positive would need further examination to locate the tumor; but someone testing negative, which constitutes the majority of patients, would be spared more invasive and uncomfortable procedures.

Cormier said the company has been funded by friends, family and angels in Alberta and New Brunswick, and has tapped such government programs as Sred, Irap and the Industrial Research Assistance Program.

Picomole is now trying to raise $500,000, which would see it through to the first sales of LifeSens, although it would also consider a total investment of up to $1 million to $1.5 million.