East Midlands Breathomics Pathology Node (EMBER)

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Our vision is to establish the East Midlands Breathomics Pathology Node (EMBER) as a centre-of-excellence to ensure the development of novel breath analysis tests to help understand disease processes and clinical decision making. This will help develop new ways to improve the way we can chose the right treatment for the right patient. Measuring breath is familar to us all in the setting of the breathalyser to detect alcohol levels, but perhaps less well known is that exhaled breath contains lots of substances known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) derived from the lung itself and from more distant organs. Recent advances in technology allow the pattern and quantity of these VOCs to be measured rapidly in patients in hospital, the doctors clinic and potentially at home. The patterns of these substances varies between diseases and can distinguish between different types of the same condition. The range of clinical conditions for which breath tests could be useful is very large. EMBER will intially focus upon respiratory infections, lung cancer, chronic respiratory disease such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cardiovascular disorders such as heart failure. The main barrier to advancing breath analysis as a routine test is that its development requires bringing together a large multi-disciplinary team of scientists and clinicans that are experts in breath analysis to work with the NHS, industry and patients to make these ideas a reality. The East Midlands has a unique and congruent group of clinical and analytical researchers drawn from the University of Leicester (UoL), the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) and Loughborough University (LU) with strengths in clinical research, analytical chemistry, data management and mathematical analysis of complex data. EMBER will focus these combined strengths, and co-ordinates existing collaborations with industry partners to create a nationally-leading centre in breath analysis with the critical mass to establish world-class delivery of new technology to the clinic, and training today's and the future scientists and health care professionals. EMBER will deliver near-patient and remote sensing technologies to analyse breath. We shall rigorously test these technologies in different diseases and in different health care settings such as acute hospitals, secondary and primary care and in the home. We shall include vulnerable patient groups such as the elderly with complicated multiple diseases and children in whom blood tests are more challenging. EMBER will ensure the usefulness of these tests so that their application brings economic and health benefits by helping to make the right decisions in choosing the right treatment for patients.