Fourteen Baltimore researchers are part of a new national
engineering research center that is expected to
revolutionize sensor technology, yielding devices that have
a unique ability to detect minute amounts of chemicals in
the atmosphere, whether they are emitted from factories or
exhaled in human breath. The Baltimore contingent in the
six-university consortium includes seven faculty members
from four Johns Hopkins University schools and seven from
the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
The goal of the center, which is funded by the National
Science Foundation and based at Princeton University, is
to produce devices that are so low in cost and so easy to
use that they will transform the way doctors care for
patients, agencies monitor air quality, governments guard
against attacks and scientists understand the evolution of
greenhouse gases. Dubbed MIRTHE for Mid-Infrared
Technologies for Health and the Environment, the project
will combine the work of about 40 faculty members, 30
graduate students and 30 undergraduates from Princeton,
Johns Hopkins, Rice and Texas A&M universities; UMBC; and
City College of New York.
Funding for the center, which is expected to include
industrial support in addition to the NSF funding, could
exceed $40 million over 10 years. NSF funding began May 1,
with $2.97 million allotted for the project's first year.
At Johns Hopkins, researchers from Arts and Sciences,
Engineering, Medicine and Public Health are working on
projects ranging from sensors that allow doctors to
diagnose and monitor diseases based on the chemical
composition of a patient's breath to a wireless network
that can measure the chemical, biological and physical
attributes of soil in situ.
"The breath of patients with kidney and liver diseases
emits certain chemical biomarkers, including ammonia," said
Terence H. Risby of the
Bloomberg School of Public Health. "It is our goal to
build and evaluate a breath ammonia monitor that will
improve treatment for kidney and liver disease. The
collection of exhaled breath has several major potential
advantages in patient care, as it is noninvasive and
entirely safe for both patients and medical personnel. In
fact, one long-term goal of this project is the development
of an ammonia breath monitor suitable and safe to use by
patients for home dialysis."
Katalin Szlavecz, a geologist and
associate research professor at the Krieger School, said
that the goal of her project — developing a wireless
sensor network that can continuously send data to
laboratory computers from various settings in woodlands and
fields — is to better understand how various
processes in the soil contribute to greenhouse gas
emissions.
"The sensors will continuously collect environmental data
at a scale that was not previously possible," Szlavecz
said. "With these tools, we will obtain unprecedented data,
improving our ability to better estimate the contribution
of soil processes to greenhouse emission."
Other MIRTHE participants will explore sensors that monitor
air quality and detect the presence of chemical weapons.
The center's investigators also are collaborating with
dozens of industrial partners to turn technology into
commercial products, and are working with several
educational outreach partners who will use the research as
a vehicle for improving science and engineering education.
The work will run the gamut from fundamental science to
applied technology.
"The sensors we are creating are like iPods compared to the
tabletop-sized computers of the past," said Claire Gmachl,
associate professor of electrical engineering at Princeton
and the center's director. "Today's state-of-the-art
sensors are very sensitive but require an expert to operate
and are bulky and expensive. MIRTHE's vision is to make
sensors with the same, or better, level of sensitivity at a
fraction of the size and cost."
In addition, MIRTHE researchers hope to educate a new
generation to carry the center's knowledge to leaders in
industry, government and academia. The center's
participants also plan to allow students (college and K-12)
to participate in hands-on science and engineering
projects.
Johns Hopkins researchers involved in MIRTHE, in addition
to Risby and Szlavecz, are Robert Brown, of the
Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine
in the School of Medicine; Jacob Khurgin, of the
Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Whiting
School; Charles Lowenstein and Steven Solga, both of the
Department of Medicine in the School of Medicine; and
Michael Trush, of the
Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the
Bloomberg School.
More information on Szlavecz's project is available at
lifeunderyourfeet.org/szlavecz.
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