EAGER: Breath-Based Early and Fast Detection of COVID-19 Infection

摘要本研究项目的目的是通过采集人体呼气样本，早期、快速地检测新冠肺炎感染。根据世界卫生组织的说法，新冠肺炎目前是一种大流行，由2019年新冠状病毒病毒引起。由于缺乏对这种新型病毒的先天免疫力，也缺乏治疗手段，进一步遏制这种疾病传播的唯一途径就是早期诊断。然而，对于许多感染者来说，这种疾病仍然没有症状，但它们可能会传播新冠肺炎，并在不知不觉中感染更多的人。该项目将带来通过采集人类呼吸样本来诊断新冠肺炎感染的新方法。这位研究人员建议使用颠覆性方法进行传染病诊断，特别是检测新冠肺炎。这种方法包括采样人类或拟议工作中的动物的呼吸，以获得三种气体信号代谢物(即新冠肺炎生物标记物)的受试者。该项目的假设是，在受试者感染2019-nCoV病毒时，这些生物标志物的相对变化的幅度提供了这种感染的早期和独特的信号。PI将通过以下方式检验这一假设：制造一个三传感器阵列，利用基于二元金属氧化物的选择性阻性气体传感器，并测试感染贝塔冠状病毒的猪的呼吸以及感染新冠肺炎的人类的呼吸。将对确诊或潜在感染的受试者进行重复测量，以绘制生物标记物随时间的起伏。将所做的测量与其中释放的促炎细胞因子的相对浓度相关联，预计将产生一种大流行感染的诊断工具。诊断原型工具将配备无线功能，作为护理点早期检测手段进行快速部署。拟议的研究和技术旨在为未来的诊断学奠定基础。通过生物标志物监测建立有效诊断冠状病毒疾病的途径，并建立在任何症状出现之前早期检测新冠肺炎所需的规范，预计将是拟议研究的主要成果。促进呼吸分析作为第一反应，现场，护理，个性化的诊断方法是设想的。对从事这一项目的学生进行跨学科研究的培训是这项研究项目的额外好处。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

AbstractThe aim of this research project is to enable early and rapid detection of infection COVID-19 by sampling human breath. COVID-19 disease is a pandemic currently, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) caused by the 2019-nCoV virus. Without innate immunity to the novel virus and with the lack of therapeutic means to treat it, the only way to contain the spread of this disease further is through early diagnosis. However, for many infected individuals the disease remains asymptomatic, yet they can potentially transmit COVID-19 and unknowingly infect more of the population. This project will lead to new approach to diagnose COVID-19 infection from sampling human breath. The investigator proposes to use a disruptive approach to infectious disease diagnosis and to the detection of COVID-19 specifically. This approach involves sampling the breath of human-- or animal in the proposed work-- subjects for three gaseous signaling metabolites (i.e. COVID-19 biomarkers). The hypothesis of the project is that the magnitude of the relative change in these biomarkers upon the subject’s infection with the 2019-nCoV virus provides an early and distinct signal of this infection. The PI will test this hypotheses by producing a three-sensor array, utilizing selective resistive gas sensors based on binary metal oxides, and by testing the breath of swine infected by a beta-coronavirus as well as the breath of humans infected by COVID-19. Measurements will be made repeatedly on definitively or potentially infected subjects to map the rise and fall of the biomarkers over time. Correlating the measurements made with the relative concentration of pro-inflammatory cytokines released in them is expected to produce a diagnostic tool for the pandemic infection. The diagnostic prototype tool will be equipped with wireless capability for rapid deployment as point-of-care, early detection means. The proposed research and technology aim to set the stage for the diagnostics of the future. Establishing the pathway for the effective diagnosis of coronavirus diseases through biomarker monitoring and establishing the specifications required for the early detection of COVID-19 before any symptoms appear are expected to be the major outcomes of the proposed research. Promoting breath analysis as a first response, on-site, point-of-care, personalized diagnostics method is envisioned. Training students working on this project on interdisciplinary research is an added benefit of this research project.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.