Owlstone Medical announced the introduction of a new ReCIVA® Breath Sampler and CASPERTM Portable Air Supply, designed to support internal biomarker discovery programs and those of academic and biopharma clients, and to measure levels of known volatile organic compounds on breath.
Cambridge, UK, 05 September, 2019: Owlstone Medical, the global leader in Breath Biopsy® for applications in early disease detection and precision medicine, today announced the introduction of a new ReCIVA® Breath Sampler and CASPERTM Portable Air Supply, designed to support internal biomarker discovery programs and those of academic and biopharma clients, and to measure levels of known volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on breath.
The discovery of biomarkers, whether in blood, tissue, or breath, can be difficult. Issues can arise throughout the process, with two of the most challenging being the impact of background noise and the risk of contamination, and the collection of sufficient levels of chemicals such that they can be measured and changes in their levels detected. Owlstone Medical has focused on addressing these challenges through the development of its proprietary Breath Biopsy platform, which has enabled the Company to become the only commercial provider of breath-based biomarker discovery services.
The reliable measurement of low concentration VOCs lies at the heart of successful breath biomarker discovery programs. By helping to exclude VOC contaminants from the environment and reduce background, CASPER is an important part of what makes Breath Biopsy both accurate and consistent. The new CASPER includes a range of benefits over its predecessor including uniting the airflow pump and filter into a single casing that connects directly to the ReCIVA Breath Sampler, the use of filter cartridges which can be easily replaced, and active warnings when the filter cartridge needs changing or of temperature or airflow issues.
The Company has implemented new software to monitor subject breathing and VOC collection through ReCIVA, including a simpler user interface and the ability to set different levels of access to settings for different users. Work is also ongoing to improve the ergonomics, ease-of-use, comfort, and robustness of the ReCIVA Breath Sampler.
Billy Boyle, co-founder and CEO at Owlstone Medical, said: “Our Breath Biopsy platform and our ability to discover and validate breath-based biomarkers is the foundation of our business, underpinning both our revenue-generating research products and services and our Breath Biopsy test development efforts. Continued investment in our industry-leading platform is therefore an important component of our strategy, and we are very pleased to announce the launch of the new CASPER and ReCIVA and to be able to deploy these technologies into our internal development programs and to make them available to our customers.”
For more information please contact:
Sarah Jeffery, Zyme Communications
sarah.jeffery@
+44 (0)7771 730919
What is Breath Biopsy®?
Breath Biopsy represents an entirely new way to measure the chemical makeup of breath by measuring volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are gaseous molecules that can be sampled quickly and non-invasively from breath and enabling whole-body sampling. These compounds are produced as the end product of metabolic processes within the body, meaning underlying changes in metabolic activity can produce particular patterns of VOCs characteristic of specific diseases.
VOCs originating from all parts of the body are captured in breath, making Breath Biopsy applicable to a wide range of diseases including cancer, inflammatory disease, infectious disease, metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease. The nature of Breath Biopsy, and VOC biomarkers, make them perfectly suited to addressing two of the major challenges of healthcare today: early detection and precision medicine.
Breath collection is carried out using Owlstone Medical’s ReCIVA Breath Sampler, which ensures reliable, reproducible collection of VOCs. Subjects breathe a controlled supply of air, and samples of their exhaled breath are captured and stabilized on Breath Biopsy Cartridges, which can then be shipped for analysis with Owlstone Medical’s Breath Biopsy analytical platform, using mass spectrometry or FAIMS to determine their VOC profile. Advanced data analytic techniques can then be applied in order to pinpoint the VOCs of interest.
About Owlstone Medical (www.owlstonemedical.com):
Owlstone Medical’s vision is to save 100,000 lives and $1.5 billion in healthcare costs by realizing the enormous promise of breath-based diagnostics through the development and application of Breath Biopsy®. Breath Biopsy operates by detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced as the end product of metabolic processes within the body or as a result of chemicals from external sources such as diet or medication, changes in which can be characteristic of specific disease or indicate environmental exposure.
The Breath Biopsy platform includes ReCIVA®, a proprietary sample collection device that can take stable breath samples anywhere, the world’s only commercial Breath Biopsy Laboratory located in Cambridge, UK, and the development of the world’s largest Digital Breath Biobank matched to patient phenotype.
Owlstone Medical is deploying the platform to address some of the key challenges of 21st century healthcare. The focus is on the early detection of disease with an emphasis on cancer, with clinical trials underway to develop breath tests for the early detection of lung and colorectal cancer, and on precision medicine through partnerships with large pharmaceutical companies including AstraZeneca, Actelion Pharmaceuticals (a J&J company), and GlaxoSmithKline to enable therapeutics to be deployed more effectively. Owlstone Medical’s technology is currently in use at over 100 sites worldwide.
