International Research Fellowship Program: Detection and Quantification of Trace Organic Compounds in Breath: Consideration of Sensor Array Technologies & Sampling Methodologies

[0502247]国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行3至24个月的研究。该计划的奖励为联合研究提供了机会，并利用独特或互补的设施、专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持Mary-Grace C. Danao博士与Silsoe研究所的Todd Mottram博士和英国贝德福德郡克兰菲尔德大学的David Cullen博士开展为期21个月的研究。呼吸监测是一种无创、安全、简便的方法，可用于确定人类和哺乳动物的一般健康状况。目前用于呼气分析的分析方法包括气相色谱法、质谱法、红外分析和电子鼻，它们在检测百万分之一或十亿分之一级别的化合物时具有不同的特异性和不同的灵敏度。然而，这些仪器的尺寸、成本和复杂性使它们不适合常规的原位监测。Pis将研究采样系统和特定生物传感器阵列的开发，以检测和分析哺乳动物呼吸和呼吸冷凝物样本中的关键分析物（生物标志物）。本研究旨在提供呼吸采样和分析的通用技术，并将通过范例实现。一个主要的例子是确定马呼吸压力的关键呼吸标志。研究计划的具体目标包括(1)识别和量化呼气和呼气冷凝水样本中的挥发性和非挥发性有机化合物；(2)鉴定适合所鉴定化合物的生物传感器技术、它们的动力学和传感器的交叉灵敏度；(3)评价不同的提取和预富集技术；(4)设计、建造和测试一个试验台规模的传感器阵列；(5)设计、构建和测试实验室呼吸输出模拟器，以帮助传感器阵列的开发；以及(6)使用模型和特定呼吸样本验证传感器阵列系统。该研究项目将使人们对呼吸中微量有机化合物的采样和传感有一个大致的了解，并有助于未来开发基于呼吸的疾病、健康和生物安全生物标志物分析的非侵入性系统。

0502247DanaoThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-one-month research fellowship by Dr. Mary-Grace C. Danao to work with Dr. Todd Mottram at Silsoe Research Institute and David Cullen at Cranfield University in Bedfordshire, United Kingdom.Breath-monitoring is a non-invasive, safe, and easy approach to determining the general health status of humans and mammals. Current analytical methods used for breath analysis include gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, infrared analysis, and electronic noses - which have varying specificity to detect compounds with varying sensitivity in the parts per million or parts per billion levels. However, the size, cost, and complexity of these instruments make them unsuitable for routine in situ monitoring. The Pis will investigate the development of a sampling system and specific biosensor array to detect and analyse key analytes (biomarkers) in mammalian breath and breath condensate samples. The research aims to provide generic techniques for breath sampling and analysis and it will be implemented by an exemplar. A prime exemplar is identifying key breath markers of respiratory stress in horses. Specific aims of the research program include (1) identifying and quantifying volatile and non-volatile organic compounds in breath and breath condensate samples; (2) identifying biosensor technologies appropriate to the identified compounds, their dynamics, and cross-sensitivities of the sensors; (3) evaluating different extraction and pre-concentration techniques; (4) designing, building, and testing a bench-scale sensor array; (5) designing, building, and testing a laboratory breath output simulator to aid the development of a sensor array; and (6) validating the sensor array system using model and specific breath samples. This research program leads to a general understanding of sampling and sensing of trace organic compounds in breath and future development of non-invasive systems for breath-based analysis of biomarkers of disease, health, and biosecurity.