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The Molecular Flow Sensor Team, with collaborating members principally from DPAG’s Robbins and Talbot groups and the Department of Chemistry, has been named the winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s (RSC) Analytical Division Horizon Prize for the development of a new technology for measuring lung function.

Image of a male individual breathing into a scientific device. Text reads 2022 Horizon Prize: A novel device for lung function measurement, Analytical Division, Horizon Prize: Sir George Stokes Award #RSCPrizes. Royal Society of Chemistry.

The Horizon Prizes celebrate the most exciting, contemporary chemical science at the cutting edge of research and innovation. They are awarded to teams or collaborations who are opening up new directions and possibilities in their field, through ground-breaking scientific developments.

The Molecular Flow Sensor Team, a multidisciplinary team of chemists, physiologists, computer modellers, and clinicians, won the prize for the development of a novel device for lung function measurement: a molecular flow sensor for non-invasive breath analysis to provide measurements of respiratory disease and cardiac output.

The prize recognises the fruits of a longstanding collaboration - the first proof of concept paper to demonstrate it was possible to use laser absorption spectroscopy in-line for respired gas analysis was published by the team in 2011. The original problem was to establish if oxygen consumption could be measured accurately in an open circuit setting when the inspired level of oxygen is high, such as in patients undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation in critical care.

Read the full story on the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics website.