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Researcher

Kevin Lamote

  • Research Expertise  (University of Antwerp):At the end of the previous century, it was discovered that exhaled breath, contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These VOCs originate from the human metabolism and could reflect changes herein. One of the major drivers of VOC production is inflammation, inducing a state called oxidative stress at the inflamed tissue, liberating VOCs. Next to this, several bacterial infections have shown to produce some VOCs specific for the strain, which could be used to detect several bacterial infections. Hence, a change in VOCs in the breath is an indication of disease or infection and could also be used to monitor disease after treatment has been initiated. The fact that breath sampling is non-invasive and does not need any forced breathing manoeuvres, it allows to be used as an ideal sampling tool for elderly people, young children and patients at the ICU, where blood sampling is sometimes experienced as painful or causes distress. Furthermore, inflammation is one of the hallmarks in cancer. Tumours are known to upregulate their metabolism and are known to escape an active immune system. These processes will influence the VOC composition in breath and hence, allow VOCs to also be used to diagnose cancer or monitor response after cancer treatment. However, up to today, the search for a breath test for diagnosing or monitoring cancer or inflammatory diseases is still in is initial discovery phase and has not yet been implemented into the clinic. Therefore, my research focusses on volatomics and breathomics by exploring the use of non-invasive breath analysis to elucidate the role of VOCs as tools for diagnosing or monitoring inflammatory and malignant diseases in vivo as by in vitro headspace analysis. Hence, the way to implement these “volatile biopsies” in a clinical diagnostic work-up could be achieved.
  • Keywords  (University of Antwerp):MASS SPECTROMETRY (GC-MS), INFLAMMATION, CANCER, EXHALED BREATH CONDENSATE, ION MOBILITY SPECTROMETRY, BREATH ANALYSIS, DIAGNOSIS, ELECTRONIC NOSES, Medicine
  • Disciplines  (University of Antwerp):Analysis of next-generation sequence data, Bio-informatics and computational biology not elsewhere classified, General diagnostics, Microbial diagnostics, Inflammation, Cancer diagnosis, Cancer therapy, Environmental health and safety, Occupational health and safety
  • Disciplines  (Ghent University):Molecular diagnostics, Respiratory medicine not elsewhere classified, Protein diagnostics, Microbial diagnostics, General diagnostics, Other clinical sciences not elsewhere classified, Clinical genetics and molecular diagnostics, Diagnostics not elsewhere classified, Respiratory medicine, Medical biotechnology diagnostics
  • Research techniques  (University of Antwerp):ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) electronic nose (eNose) gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS) Jaeger EcoScreen (exhaled breath condensate; EBC)