TALK TITLE: Using exhaled breath to diagnose COVID-19 with Cristina Davis
SPEAKER: Cristina Davis, Professor and Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UC Davis
ABSTRACT: The extent of the COVID-19 pandemic is still truly unknown due to the unavailability of SARS-CoV-2 tests. The development of new types of diagnostics will greatly increase the global testing capacity. Additionally, there are no methods available to track an individual’s health during COVID-19 infections outside of a clinical setting that could be predictive of prognosis, such warning if mild cases are turning severe and require clinical intervention.
Our research team has been developing rapid, non-invasive diagnostic platforms for pulmonary viral infections through analysis of a person’s exhaled breath. Exhaled breath contains thousands of metabolites that not only provide diagnostic capabilities but also can be used to assess pulmonary health, tracking disease progression and severity with samples that can be collected at home.
BIO: Dr. Davis is the Warren & Leta Geidt Endowed Professor and Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Davis. She is an Associate Director of the UCD NIH-funded NCATS center on translational medicine. Her research focuses on mini analytical sensors for mobile chemical detection for biomedical monitoring and surveillance for precision medicine. She served as a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) for the United States Air Force (2014-2018), a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and National Academy of Inventors (NAI), and Co-Founder and Scientific Advisor to a UCD affiliated start-up based on her research. She is the chair-elect of the International Association of Breath Research (IABR).
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