James Covington at the 2020 Breath Biopsy Conference

The 2021 Breath Biopsy Conference is scheduled for 12th & 13th October. Click the button to express interest in the next Breath Biopsy Conference:

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Talk Abstract:
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) remains a major health burden across the world. In the UK alone more than 300,000 people suffer from this highly unpleasant disease, though it is likely many more remain undiagnosed. Diagnosis remains difficult, with many symptoms the same as irritable bowel syndrome, which is far more common, which results in the time to diagnosis being years. Disease confirmation is through endoscopic assessment, which is invasive and costly as access to the gut is challenging. Monitoring of human waste, be it breath, urine or stool provides a non-invasive method to understand the changes in the gut and provide a simple means to diagnose and potentially monitor the disease. This could lead to better clinical outcomes and significantly improved quality of life. This presentation reports on our efforts to investigate and develop a non-invasive test based on breath and other human waste material for the diagnosis and monitoring of IBD in both adults and children. Medical studies have been undertaken using FAIMS, Electronic Nose and GC-IMS analytical platforms with patients with IBD and related conditions. Results indicate we are able to diagnose IBD against diseases with similar symptoms and able to separate the two forms of IBD. We believe that this work could lead to a change in clinical treatment for these serious conditions.

Speaker Biography:
James Covington is a Professor in Electronic Sngineering within the School of Engineering at Warwick University. He has spent his academic career developing chemical and biological sensors for detecting a variety of environmental pollutants and biological agents, applying a wide range of electronic and MEMS techniques in the development of these novel sensors. He setup the Biomedical Sensors Laboratory in 2010, at Warwick University to apply gas analysis techniques to the medical arena. This dedicated facility is focused on the analysis of potential gas phase biomarkers that emanate from human waste (breath, urine, stool, sweat and skin). The group has looked at several different disease groups, including irritable bowel disease, skin/colorectal/bladder/pancreatic cancer, coeliac disease, bile acid malabsorption, diabetes and tuberculosis – and many more. He has received funding from the EU, MRC, NIHR, industry and many charities (including the Rosetree foundation, BROAD foundation, BDRF, Coeliac UK, Lily-May charity and BRET). In addition, he has been working on developing low-cost, high-volume chemical sensors for the industrial sector. He has now produced the most cost & power efficient chemical sensors commercially available today. Such techniques are presently being applied to the environmental and agricultural sectors. He is also the president of the International Society of Chemical Sensors. He sits on the board of the science & technology for Health GRP. He has also been involved in numerous public events (including at the London Science Museum), TV programmes (Discovery Channel and BBC) and in the media for his work on smell.

The 2021 Breath Biopsy Conference is scheduled for 12th & 13th October. Click the button to express interest in the next Breath Biopsy Conference:

Express Interest