SHB: Type I (EXP): Personalized Asthma Monitor Detecting Nitric Oxide in Breath

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project explores the use of a gas selective resistive type sensing technology to detect and quantitate nitric oxide (NO) in exhaled breath for diagnostic purposes. The goal of the project is to develop a technique for personalized monitoring of the fraction of nitric oxide (FeNO) in exhaled breath, with the long term objective of prevention or control of airway diseases, such as asthma. FeNO is a known biomarker for measuring airway inflammation and the technology studied in this project provides an effective and practical means to quantitate NO levels in breath in a relatively simple and noninvasive way. This work involves the use of single crystal metal oxide nanowires that are expected to improve the detection threshold of NO-selective sensing nanoprobes by at least two orders of magnitude down to the few ppb level and below. A sensor microsystem is being developed that quantifies the gas sensor response to generate and display an accurate measure of the NO concentration in a single exhaled breath. The design of independent component analysis (ICA) algorithms, to enhance the gas discrimination and improve the robustness of the sensor response, is one of the objectives of this project. The implementation of the ICA algorithms and readout circuitry incorporating baseline tracking in mixed-signal VLSI will lead to a low-power autonomous system-on-chip solution for the measurement of gas concentrations from a handheld gas-measuring unit. The head space from cell cultures that have been stimulated to generate NO and CO are being used, along with breath-simulating samples, to assess the performance and reliability of the NO-breathalyzer. The same studies help to understand the biochemistry of NO production in response to inflammation. The expected outcome of this work is a smart health breath analysis tool that will empower the individual who may be susceptible to airway diseases to stay healthy and that provides a means for self-monitoring of early signs of illness in the home, instead of the hospital setting in which monitoring would require the assistance of health care professionals. The new tools being developed for personalized diagnostics should be easily employed by the lay public to promote their health and well-being. Furthermore, the device will be especially suitable for use by a wide range of compromised individuals, such as the very elderly, young children and otherwise incapacitated patients. This project will engage students, including underrepresented groups in research activities in an interdisciplinary field spanning nanomaterials, sensor nanotechnology, microelectronic device fabrication and diagnostic instrumentation, biophysics and biochemistry, and ultimately nanomedicine. Interactions with National Laboratories and the medical diagnostics industry are anticipated. These interactions are expected to lead to the translation of the technology embodied in the NO-breathalyzer resulting from this work in the laboratory to the marketplace. The results of this work will be disseminated through publications, presentations, outreach events and multimedia products to be posted on the project web site (https://web.stonybrook.edu/cnsd/formservertemplates/pro7.html).