Volatolomics approach towards a better understanding of chronic lung inflammation

editorial reviewe

Development of data processing workflow for untargeted multidimensional chromatography

peer reviewe

Investigation of volatile mixture emit by human tissues degradation

Human rescue dog unit are the more efficient tool to locate cadaver or people trap after a natural disaster. However, the dog training process is long and expensive. Dog trainers are always looking for a better understanding of the dog olfaction matching to improve their training methods (1). During these training sessions, dogs are usually trained to locate body pieces due to the difficulty to obtain a full cadaver. Moreover, some training aid solution are available but their compositions and their efficiencies are not worldwide recognized (2). To answer these questions, this project is monitoring the headspace human organs during the decomposition process. Five different organs are used: heart, lung, liver, kidney and blood. Every organs are sampled in triplicates and let to decompose in glass jar. Regularly, the headspace of the jar is sample by dynamic pumping to sorbent tubes that will further be injected on comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography system (GC×GC). GC×GC is a powerful analytical tool that allows the complete resolution of “the smell of death”, i.e. the decomposition odor (3-4). The compounds identified in the organs headspace can be compared with the one coming from decomposition studies on full bodies to establish a biomarkers list that will further be used for dog training solution elaboration. References 1. Hoffman et al. FSI (2009) 186, 6-13. 2. Stadler et al. J. Chrom. A. 1255, 202-206. 3. Stefanuto et al. CPC (2014) 79, 786-789. 4. Perrault et al. J. Sep. Sci. (2015) 38, 73-80

Breath Volatolomics for Medical Applications. Are We There Yet?

Peer reviewe

Postmortem Internal Gas Reservoir Monitoring Using GC×GC-HRTOF-MS

Forensic investigations often require postmortem examination of a body. However, the collection of evidence during autopsy is often destructive, meaning that the body can no longer be examined in its original state. In order to obtain an internal image of the body, whole body postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) has proven to be a valuable non-destructive tool and is currently used in medicolegal centers. PMCT can also be used to visually locate gas reservoirs inside a cadaver, which upon analysis can provide useful information regarding very volatile compounds that are produced after death. However, the non-targeted profiling of all potential volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in these reservoirs has never been attempted. The aim of this study was to investigate the VOC profile of these reservoirs and to evaluate potential uses of such information to document circumstances surrounding death, cause of death and body taphonomy. Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight high-resolution mass spectrometry (GCxGC-HRTOF-MS) was used for VOC measurements. This study demonstrated that the chemical composition of VOCs within the gas reservoirs differed between locations within a single body but also between individuals. In the future, this work could be expanded to investigate a novel, non-destructive cadaver screening approach prior to full autopsy procedures