Respiratory Diseases

Chronic inflammatory airway disease, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), interstitial lung disease (ILD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) affect over 500M people worldwide.¹ These conditions are highly heterogeneous but share common clinical presentations, this makes accurate diagnosis and effective treatment a critical challenge.

Human breath contains over 1,000 different volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which can originate from endogenous metabolism or exogenous sources such as diet, the environment or the microbiome. Collecting and analyzing these compounds can be a rich source of information relevant to health and disease. By developing Breath Biopsy, Owlstone Medical have become the world-leaders in robust and reliable, non-invasive breath collection for biomarker discovery research.

^{_{1. Labaki, W.W., Han, M.K., Chronic respiratory diseases: a global view Lancet Resp Med 8 (6), 531-533 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30157-0}}

About Breath Biomarkers

Biomarkers on breath are well suited to the study, diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases. They can originate directly within diseased airways or can be transferred into breath from the bloodstream. As such breath tests have the potential to detect local and systemic markers of respiratory diseases. Breath Biopsy uses the ReCIVA^® Breath Sampler for non-invasive breath sample collection and provides robust global biomarker analysis pipelines using GC-MS analysis provided through Breath Biopsy OMNI. Our analysis and reporting capabilities allow us to provide specialized feedback that can include compounds with existing reported links to respiratory diseases of interest.

Our team organize and attend a range of events to showcase Breath Biopsy. This includes our webinar series and the annual Breath Biopsy Conference (BBCon), a keystone event for the breath research community.

View Events     Next BBcon

• PUBLICATION: Breath Biopsy is well accepted by patients – EMBER researchers assess the acceptability of sample collection with ReCIVA for patients with acute breathlessness
• POSTER: Biomarkers of stress in lungs – A study of ultramarathon runners used Breath Biopsy to uncover markers of physical lung stress and injury caused by extreme exercise
• PUBLICATION: Biomarkers of asthma phenotypes – Researchers at Liege University identified four VOCs to stratify key asthma phenotypes
• CASE STUDY: Detecting cystic fibrosis and exacerbations – Summarizing a study of children with cystic fibrosis seeking to detect Pseudomonas exacerbations
• PODCAST: American Thoracic Society – Our CEO, Billy Boyle, talks to Andrew Bishop about Breath Biopsy for respiratory diseases on the ATS podcast.
• PRESENTATION: Graham Clarke at BBCon21 – Discussing work at Astra Zeneca and the potential of breath biomarkers for precision medicine.
• BLOG: Avoiding background signals – How the CASPER™ Portable Air Supply enhances Breath Biopsy results
• DOWNLOAD: Breath Biopsy: The Complete Guide – Over 100 pages packed with everything you need to know about breath research, and the applications and technologies of Breath Biopsy
• REVIEW: ReCIVA is an optimal sampling solution – A systematic review by Azim et al. identifies ReCIVA as an optimal solution for clinical utility in breath collection
• BLOG: Inflammation as a source of biomarkers – Although inflammation is a feature of many diseases, there is reason to believe it can still produce biomarkers specific to different phenotypes
• PUBLICATION: VOCs, lung microbiome and COPD – Results from an early Breath Biopsy study with GSK examining VOCs on breath for insights into the lung microbiome in COPD patients.
• POSTER: Biomarkers of lung cancer in former smokers – A Breath Biopsy study with BC Cancer
• BLOG: The benefits of breath sampling – Seven reasons to collect and analyze breath samples for your research
• POSTER: Biomarkers for IPF/ILA – Results of a Breath Biopsy study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
• PAPER: Applications of VOC Biomarkers in Asthma – Our whitepaper on the use of breath biomarkers for asthma diagnosis and treatment
• BLOG: Tips for study design – Get the most out of Breath Biopsy with careful planning
• REPORT: Breath biomarkers an asthma priority – An expert European partnership identifies VOC biomarkers on breath as a key asthma research priority
• ARTICLE: The Pathologist looks at breath biomarkers – An article summarising the use of breath for early detection and precision medicine

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