Meet The Organizers
Spotlight box
- IEEE Sensors journal dedicates special topics issue to "Sensors for Breath Analysis"
The conference planning committee is comprised of four researchers in the larger northern califnoria bay area. After recognizing the lack of discussion venues for sensor related topics in the field of breath analysis, they decided to host this workshop to specifically address sensor design issues. While many venues have facilitated discussions on identifying biological metabolomic signatures in human breath, few forums have existed to talk about the engineering-specific challenges that must be met to bring breath analysis sensor systems to market.
Prof. Cristina Davis
Dr. Cristina Davis is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at the University of California, Davis. Her main research interests are in chemical and biological sensing applications, novel bioMEMS devices, and bioinformatics interpretation of sensor output.
She earned her B.S. degree (1994) at Duke University with a double major in Mathematics and Biology. She went on to complete her M.S. (1996) and Ph.D. (1999) in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia focusing on ion channel electrophysiology and novel biosensor research. She then worked on silicon-chip based biosensors during a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University, and she continued this work in industry to develop a commercialized version of the technology. She then worked for three years leading chem/bio sensor development work for the defense industry, and has been working on breath analysis topics since 2002. More information on her research can be found on her website
Dr. Matthias Frank
Dr. Matthias Frank is a Group Leader of Biophotonics & Advanced Diagnostics, which is in the Physical Sciences Directorate and the Applied Physics and Biophysics Division of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Dr. Harald Oser
Dr. Harald Oser is a Senior Research Physicist in the Molecular Physics Laboratory at SRI International. He received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from University of Stuttgart, Germany, in 1992. Dr. Oser has 15 years’ experience in laser spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and Chemical Kinetics. His areas of expertise include laser and molecular physics; nonlinear optics; multiphoton excitation; chemical kinetics of flame relevant reaction; high-resolution laser spectroscopy; mass spectrometry; ion-optical design; photon ionization instrumentation and its field applications; laser-based environmental monitoring, explosives detection, and surface analysis. He holds several international patents and in 1992 and 1995 was awarded the German Aerospace Research Centre (DLR) research prize for the investigation of the flame relevant reaction CH3 + OH. Since joining SRI in 1998, Dr. Oser has been responsible for projects studying laser ionization mass spectroscopy and its applications including fundamental spectroscopic studies of chlorinated hydrocarbons, explosives and chemical warfare agents on surfaces. Current research includes the development and application of mass spectrometric techniques for breath analysis and real-time characterization of pyrolysis gases during ablator thermal decomposition.
Prof. Nicholas Kenyon
Dr. Nicholas Kenyon is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Program Director in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. His research interests are nitric oxide in airway inflammation, asthma, COPD, mouse models of asthma, and biomarkers.
He is presently the PI for three small, translational research trials that are relevant to this program. In one study, Dr. Kenyon is determining whether the increase in lung nitric oxide levels with supplemental L-arginine decreases the number of exacerbations in patients with severe asthma. In a study performed in collaboration with the Western Health and Nutrition Research Center/USDA, Dr. Kenyon and colleagues are testing the hypothesis that omega-3 fatty acids will decrease leukotriene levels in patient with specific ALOX5 polymorphisms. A third CTSC-funded pilot study (PI: C. Davis) is designed to analyze metabolomic profiles in exhaled condensate in subjects with COPD and asthma. Dr. Kenyon is also the Co-Director of the UCAN clinics, Director of the CTSC T32 training grant, and the Research Subject Advocate (RSA) for the UC Davis CTSC.
