International Research Fellowship Program: Detection and Quantification of Trace Organic Compounds in Breath: Consideration of Sensor Array Technologies & Sampling Methodologies

0502247Danao国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行三到24个月的研究。该项目的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，并利用国外独特或互补的设施、专业知识和实验条件。该奖项将支持Mary-Grace C.Danao博士与Silsoe研究所的Todd Mottram博士和英国贝德福德郡克兰菲尔德大学的David Cullen合作，为期21个月的研究奖学金。呼吸监测是一种非侵入性、安全和容易确定人类和哺乳动物总体健康状况的方法。目前用于呼气分析的分析方法包括气相色谱、质谱仪、红外分析和电子鼻，这些方法具有不同的特异性，可以检测出百万分之几或十亿分之几的不同灵敏度的化合物。然而，这些仪器的大小、成本和复杂性使它们不适合常规的现场监测。PIS将研究采样系统和特定生物传感器阵列的开发，以检测和分析哺乳动物呼气和呼气冷凝物样本中的关键分析物(生物标记物)。这项研究旨在为呼吸采样和分析提供通用技术，并将通过一个范例来实施。一个主要的范例是识别马呼吸应激的关键呼吸标志。该研究计划的具体目标包括：(1)识别和量化呼气和呼气冷凝液样品中的挥发性和非挥发性有机化合物；(2)确定适用于所识别的化合物、它们的动力学和传感器的交叉敏感性的生物传感器技术；(3)评估不同的提取和预浓缩技术；(4)设计、建造和测试实验室规模的传感器阵列；(5)设计、建造和测试实验室呼吸输出模拟器，以帮助开发传感器阵列；以及(6)使用模型和具体的呼气样本来验证传感器阵列系统。这项研究计划导致对呼气中微量有机化合物的采样和传感以及基于呼气的疾病、健康和生物安全生物标记物的非侵入性系统的未来发展有了大致的了解。

0502247DanaoThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-one-month research fellowship by Dr. Mary-Grace C. Danao to work with Dr. Todd Mottram at Silsoe Research Institute and David Cullen at Cranfield University in Bedfordshire, United Kingdom.Breath-monitoring is a non-invasive, safe, and easy approach to determining the general health status of humans and mammals. Current analytical methods used for breath analysis include gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, infrared analysis, and electronic noses - which have varying specificity to detect compounds with varying sensitivity in the parts per million or parts per billion levels. However, the size, cost, and complexity of these instruments make them unsuitable for routine in situ monitoring. The Pis will investigate the development of a sampling system and specific biosensor array to detect and analyse key analytes (biomarkers) in mammalian breath and breath condensate samples. The research aims to provide generic techniques for breath sampling and analysis and it will be implemented by an exemplar. A prime exemplar is identifying key breath markers of respiratory stress in horses. Specific aims of the research program include (1) identifying and quantifying volatile and non-volatile organic compounds in breath and breath condensate samples; (2) identifying biosensor technologies appropriate to the identified compounds, their dynamics, and cross-sensitivities of the sensors; (3) evaluating different extraction and pre-concentration techniques; (4) designing, building, and testing a bench-scale sensor array; (5) designing, building, and testing a laboratory breath output simulator to aid the development of a sensor array; and (6) validating the sensor array system using model and specific breath samples. This research program leads to a general understanding of sampling and sensing of trace organic compounds in breath and future development of non-invasive systems for breath-based analysis of biomarkers of disease, health, and biosecurity.