Cystic Fibrosis Foundation invests $2.3m in Owlstone Medical
The goal is to develop a breath-based test suitable for both early detection of new Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) infection and monitoring of chronic infection in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), with diagnostic accuracy at least comparable to sputum culture tests.
Leveraging Owlstone’s expertise in volatile organic compound analysis, the test will also be developed to distinguish PA from S. aureus and other common respiratory bacterial pathogens found in the lungs of people with CF.
Initial work will focus on chronic PA to establish scientific proof-of-principle that VOCs on breath can identify this lung infection and be utilised as part of long-term monitoring of infection.
If successful, additional work can be organised to test the ability of this approach to detect new PA infections – an important event in the clinical care of people with CF.
Billy Boyle, co-founder and CEO at Owlstone Medical, said: “Owlstone’s experience in the breath-based detection of infectious disease through projects with the U.S. Department of Defense, the Gates Foundation, and other partners, underpinned by our proprietary Breath Biopsy platform, places Owlstone in an excellent position to help improve outcomes for CF patients infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa.”
He added: “Data from the study will also be entered into Owlstone’s Breath VOC Atlas5, where it will continue to be used in clinical studies and analyses to support further biomarker and test development across a wide range of disease areas.”
Owlstone Medical’s vision is to save 100,000 lives by realising the promise of breath-based diagnostics through the development and application of Breath Biopsy®, a unique platform capable of both biomarker discovery and use in routine clinical testing.
The platform includes the ReCIVA® Breath Sampler, a proprietary sample collection device that can take stable breath samples anywhere, the world’s only commercial-scale Breath Biopsy Laboratory located in Cambridge, UK and the Breath Biopsy VOC Atlas®, the most extensive catalogue of identified volatile organic compounds (VOCs) commonly found on breath.
The company’s technology is protected by over 160 granted and pending patents and has been used in more than 100 research papers.
Breath Biopsy represents an entirely new way to determine the chemical makeup of breath by measuring volatile organic compounds (VOCs), gaseous molecules that can be sampled quickly and non-invasively. VOCs originate from all parts of the body as the end product of metabolic processes, making Breath Biopsy applicable to a wide range of diseases including lung cancer, liver disease, and digestive disease.