Advances in Electronic-Nose Technologies Developed for Biomedical Applications

The research and development of new electronic-nose applications in the biomedical field has accelerated at a phenomenal rate over the past 25 years. Many innovative e-nose technologies have provided solutions and applications to a wide variety of complex biomedical and healthcare problems. The purposes of this review are to present a comprehensive analysis of past and recent biomedical research findings and developments of electronic-nose sensor technologies, and to identify current and future potential e-nose applications that will continue to advance the effectiveness and efficiency of biomedical treatments and healthcare services for many years. An abundance of electronic-nose applications has been developed for a variety of healthcare sectors including diagnostics, immunology, pathology, patient recovery, pharmacology, physical therapy, physiology, preventative medicine, remote healthcare, and wound and graft healing. Specific biomedical e-nose applications range from uses in biochemical testing, blood-compatibility evaluations, disease diagnoses, and drug delivery to monitoring of metabolic levels, organ dysfunctions, and patient conditions through telemedicine. This paper summarizes the major electronic-nose technologies developed for healthcare and biomedical applications since the late 1980s when electronic aroma detection technologies were first recognized to be potentially useful in providing effective solutions to problems in the healthcare industry

Viability and potential for immigration of airborne bacteria from Africa that reach high mountain lakes in Europe

12 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables.-- PMID: 19453609 [PubMed].-- Printed version published Jun 2009.Supporting information (Suppl. table S1) available at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122369858/suppinfoResearch reviewed in Caroline Ash's "Microbiology: Aeolian Microbes" (Editor's choice: Highlights of the recent literature, Science 324(5930): 989-991, May 22, 2009, doi: 10.1126/science.324_989d), available OA at: http://www.iac.ethz.ch/people/knuttir/papers/smith09sci.pdfWe have analysed the diversity of the bacteria, which grow after addition of concentrated airborne particles and desert dust in different microcosms combinations with water samples from oligotrophic alpine lakes. We used, on the one hand, airborne bacteria transported by an African dust plume and collected in a high mountain area in the central Pyrenees (Spain). On the other hand, we collected desert dust in Mauritania (c. 3000 km distance, and a few days estimated airborne journey), a known source region for dust storms in West Africa, which originates many of the dust plumes landing on Europe. In all the dust-amended treatments we consistently observed bacterial growth of common phyla usually found in freshwater ecosystems, i.e. Alpha-, Beta- and Gammaproteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and a few Bacteroidetes, but with different composition based on lake water pretreatment and dust type. Overall, we tentatively split the bacterial community in (i) typical freshwater non-airborne bacteria, (ii) cosmopolitan long-distance airborne bacteria, (iii) non-freshwater low-distance airborne bacteria, (iv) non-freshwater long-distance airborne soil bacteria and (v) freshwater non-soil airborne bacteria. We identified viable long-distance airborne bacteria as immigrants in alpine lakes (e.g. Sphingomonas-like) but also viable putative airborne pathogens with the potential to grow in remote alpine areas (Acinetobacter-like and Arthrobacter-like). Generation of atmospheric aerosols and remote dust deposition is a global process, largely enhanced by perturbations linked to the global change, and high mountain lakes are very convenient worldwide model systems for monitoring global-scale bacterial dispersion and pathogens entries in remote pristine environments.This research was carried out in the LTER site Limnological Observatory of the Pyrenees and was initially funded by Grant ECOSENSOR BIOCON04/009 from the Fundación BBVA, and further by projects AERBAC 079-2007 from the Ministerio de Medio Ambiente-Red de Parques Nacionales, and CONSOLIDER grant GRACCIE CSD2007-00004 from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN). We are thankful to the Authorities of AiguesTortes and Estany de St Maurici National Park for sampling facilities in the protected areas and continuous support, to Jose Carlos Brito from Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos (CIBIO, Portugal) for sand collection in Mauritania, and to Carmen Gutiérrez-Provecho and JC Auguet for field and laboratory assistance. A.H. had a PhD research scholarship granted from the BBVA Foundation.Peer reviewe