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

摘要本课题旨在通过对人的呼吸采样，实现对COVID-19感染的早期快速检测。根据世界卫生组织（世卫组织）的说法，由2019-nCoV病毒引起的COVID-19疾病目前正在大流行。由于缺乏对这种新型病毒的先天免疫，又缺乏治疗手段，进一步遏制这种疾病传播的唯一途径是通过早期诊断。然而，对于许多感染者来说，这种疾病仍然没有症状，但他们可能会传播COVID-19，并在不知不觉中感染更多的人群。该项目将为通过呼吸采样诊断COVID-19感染提供新方法。研究者建议使用一种破坏性的方法来诊断传染病，特别是检测COVID-19。这种方法包括在拟议的工作中对人类或动物的呼吸进行采样，以获取三种气体信号代谢产物（即COVID-19生物标志物）。该项目的假设是，在受试者感染2019-nCoV病毒后，这些生物标志物的相对变化幅度提供了这种感染的早期和明显信号。PI将利用以二元金属氧化物为基础的选择性电阻式气体传感器制作三传感器阵列，并对感染新型冠状病毒的猪和感染新型冠状病毒的人的呼吸进行测试，以此来验证这一假设。将对确定或潜在感染的受试者进行反复测量，以绘制生物标志物随时间的起伏图。将测量结果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，作为即时护理和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，建立在任何症状出现之前早期发现COVID-19所需的规范，预计将是本次研究的主要成果。设想促进呼吸分析作为第一反应，现场，护理点，个性化的诊断方法。训练参与本研究项目的学生进行跨学科研究是本研究项目的一个额外好处。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.