"Health Technology" - to develop an optical nose

挥发性有机化合物（VOC）的检测对于环境监测（例如空气质量控制和食品安全）非常重要，并且最近发现其在从COVID-19到糖尿病和癌症的各种疾病的诊断中的应用。传统的分析方法，如气相色谱法（GC）和质谱法（MS），虽然准确可靠，但需要昂贵的设备，而且往往费时费力。这一领域的先前工作已经展示了便携式解决方案，其中多达64个传感器的阵列已经被证明接近人类鼻子的能力。这些解决方案使用表面等离子体共振（SPR），并且应用起来很麻烦（成角度入射，棱镜）。在这里，我们将探讨导模共振（GMR）技术，这是人工鼻领域的一项重大创新，因为它们提供了比SPR高10-100倍的灵敏度;我们期望达到更高的灵敏度。此外，GMR模式具有低成本实现的潜力。该项目与EPSRC计划资助“无处不在的光学医疗保健技术（ubOHT）（EP/X 037770/1）”保持一致，并与EPSRC医疗保健技术战略保持一致。在这种情况下，我们将与斯特拉斯克莱德大学的研究人员合作，他们提供分析化学专业知识，并将提供用于检测挥发性化合物的新型粘合剂分子。该项目还涉及图灵研究所的研究人员，他们在数据科学方面的独特技能对于解释时域中的多维读数至关重要，因为挥发物的结合亲和力非常低。该项目由Owlstone Medical提供支持，他们从工业角度出发，将提供基于质谱的标准。

The detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is important for environmental monitoring, such as air quality control and food safety, and has recently found application in diagnosis of diverse diseases, from COVID-19 to diabetes and cancer. Traditional analytical methods such as gas chromatography (GC) and mass spectroscopy (MS), though accurate and reliable, require expensive equipment and are often time-consuming and laborious. Previous work in this area already demonstrated portable solutions with arrays of up to 64 sensors having been demonstrated close to the ability of the human nose. These solutions use surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and are cumbersome to apply (angled incidence, prism). Here, we will explore the guided mode resonance (GMR) technique, which presents a major innovation in field of artifical noses, because they offer a 10-100 fold higher sensitivity than SPR; we expect to reach commensurately higher sensitivity for the artificial nose. Moreover, the GMR modality has potential for a low-cost realisation. The project is aligned with the EPSRC Programme Grant "Ubiquitous Optical Healthcare Technologies (ubOHT)(EP/X037770/1)" and firmly aligns with the EPSRC Healthcare Technology strategy. In this context, we will work with researchers at Strathclyde Universities who contribute analytical chemistry expertise and will contribute novel binder molecules for detecting the volatile compounds. The project also involves researchers at the Turing Institute whose unique skillset in data science will be essential for the interpretation of multidimensional readouts in the time-domain, given that binding affinities for volatiles are very low. The project is supported by Owlstone Medical who bring in the industrial angle and will give access to their mass-spectrometry based standards.