Standardisation of Data processing

Rapporteur: Matteo Pardo (INFM & University of Brescia,Italy)

As already described in detail in the presentation of Matteo Pardo (à see his presentation) the next leap in standardisation has to be achieved. The work performed within NOSEII was leading to a standardisation of the data format (there is a reader application and export functionalities for different packages which enables the whole community to exchange the data across systems and labs very easily) as well as a reference implementation of the existing IEEE 1451.x standards in real hardware (as it has been the topic of the successful NOSEII school in the fourth year in Crete). Using this as an input it will be important to standardize as well the subsequent pipeline in the data processing. This will bring the community a lot of added value since it will be fostering the transparency of the outcome of experiments starting with the sample on one end leading to a classification or quantification on the other hand. If the methodology is standardized and the data is public everyone in the community has in principle the possibility to reproduce the results and check the claims. This will be especially important for raising the quality of publications in the field and as mentioned already will also lead there to transparency. This methodology however is not a NOSEII invention but taken over from good practice and experience of the “Bioconductor” initiative (http://www.bioconductor.org) in cancer research.

In the workgroup a first potential set of partners for a FP7 activity was listed, considering that stakeholders like e.g. publishers will have to be also invited. Work packages were defined and a potential coordinator (à Matteo Pardo, INFM & University of Brescia) was nominated. The tentative working title for the project was fixed (DAS³) and M. Pardo will start the discussions with the groups and stakeholders who haven’t been in the meeting. The correct instrument within FP7 will have to be identified (at the moment it is not clear whether it will be a research project with a considerable educational part or whether it will be more a network with a considerable research part).

Microsensors

Rapporteur: Carmen Moldovan (IMT Bucharest, Romania)

In this working group the development and adaptation of new or existing microsensors was discussed intensively. Obviously there is a considerable industrial need of having several parameters measured in parallel in a closed geometric confinement. Arcelik as the largest Turkish home appliances manufacturer was making very clear that the combination of individual single sensors for measuring different chemical and physical properties will be much too bulky. For different appliances like ovens, microwaves, washing machines, dish washers, etc. the parameters to be measured are chemicals in the gas and liquid phase, temperature, pressure, flow, position, etc. As an outcome it is obvious that something like a “micro-sensor technology platform” having the potential to integrate different features for measuring different properties in a closely confined space would be an asset for the European domestic appliances industry. Of course limitations are given by the need of using different materials for different technologies (metal oxides, silicon, polymers, etc.) but this challenging task asks for a European initiative in this domain. C. Moldovan volunteered to scrutinize their existing networks for partners interested in such a RTD action and further exchange of information was agreed. Considered there will be an appropriate call launched in FP7 the nucleus of a partnership was already formed and a project proposal for a stable and reproducible microsensor platform will be prepared.

(Micro-) Spectrometers

Rapporteur: Emmanuel Scorsone (Alphasense Ltd., UK)

Chemical sensing technologies are widespread and are having gained a defined market field. On the other hand there are applications existing (medical, field measurements) or emerging (security domain) where we do have principle problems with chemical sensors. Sometimes the sensitivity is not sufficient but often also the selectivity doesn’t allow entering in the sector. Consequently and with the possibilities of miniaturisation (micro-) spectrometers are getting more and more into the industrial interest. Here of course one has to be careful about the “scaling” since e.g. the absorption length of and infrared beam isn’t scaling with the instrument size.

Alphasense as a company would be willing to support activities in the direction of combining experience in the sensing field with people working in the spectroscopic field complemented by MEMS experts (à see the presentation of Alphasense). Anyhow it will be an interdisciplinary activity which can be funded by bi- or multilateral direct industrial funding but of course a complementary input from the European commission in terms of a funded project is also welcome. The important targets of such a project is to achieve reliable and long tem stable setups which are portable and can be also operated in the field. The direction from the marketing point of view is not to generate universal “electronic noses” but instruments which are able to give e.g. a 1/0 output which means detect the presence or absence of a certain beforehand defined analyte. E. Scorsone was making it very clear: “the customer at the end doesn’t car what is in the box, he wants to get the task solved!”

In terms of materials which have to be / will be used for the task of generating such an instrument it was again a very pragmatic statement telling that it doesn’t matter if it is “nano” or not, it has to be producible also for a mass market and lead to reproducible characteristics. In consequence it means that both ICT technology as well as material technology has to be pushed not making too much fuzz around micro/nano or whatever but focus on the resulting properties and performance. Discussions in this direction are ongoing and Alphasense as well as the other partners are keeping in touch for initiating an FP7 action when appropriate.

Medical Applications

Rapporteur: Romeo Beccherelli (CNR-IMM Rome)

As it has been presented already during the first day there is an increasing interest in the NOSE community to enter the medical domain (à presentations of R. Beccherelli and Z. Z. Öztürk). Obviously there are only a few non-invasive methodologies to measure body related parameters such as urine, skin (especially cutaneous respiration), and breath. While urine measurements are already well established the latter two are only used very rarely. This is of course also related to the fact that in a medical laboratory the respective larger tools like GC/MS systems are not available. Rome as well as Istanbul have been performing during the last couple of years a large amount of preparatory work and measurements in order to pave the road in the direction of using the gas phase as a sample for diagnosing the health status of persons. Lung cancer as a relatively widespread disease could be counterfeited much more effectively if the diagnosis would be available at an early stage. Consequently it is important to get a rapid screening tool based upon the technology within NOSE. As “health” is also an important issue in FP7 it was discussed how to implement a concerted action in order to achieve a substantial impact in this direction. It was agreed that it will be important to widen the studies existent up to date by a considerable extent to improve the statistics. For achieving this it will be important to activate all the existing links to physicians / medical doctors in clinics around these centres and continue with the tests. Here again it will be important to standardize the test protocol. But besides the protocol it will be also important to standardize the whole processing pipeline in order to get to comparable results when the measurements are performed at different locations. The Rome group will take care of this and push in this direction. Besides the technical aspects also a working group will have to deal with other aspects like legal issues as well as ethical implications.

From the technology side the up- and downsides of reversible versus disposable test were discussed and it was concluded that e.g. a lung cancer test could be also based upon disposable units as long as the price of the disposable element is in the range of a box of cigarettes.

To conclude: The Rome group will continue to work into this direction, exchange experience with the Istanbul group and push this issue towards a FP7 activity.