Pneumatic focusing gas chromatography (PFGC) is a new, fully-automated technique for trace-gas analysis developed at Portland State University for ambient air pollution analysis. PSU has applied for a patent and will grant VOC Technologies an exclusive license. The prototype instrument has operated for more than 1 year, taking >15,000 chromatograms quantifying >30 volatile organic compounds in the relatively clean air of Portland Oregon. This technology is ideally suited for breath analysis and will be adapted for fully automated, continuous measurements of trace metabolites present in the breath of laboratory test organisms. If proof of principle testing, the prototype PFGC will then be employed in an ongoing study of normal and hypoxic rats at the Oregon Health Sciences University. This NIH-sponsored study explores the role of hypoxia-ischemia in the pathogenesis of perinatal brain injury by evaluating two highly promising models of perinatal hypoxia-ischemic cerebral white matter injury rats and mice. The metabolic disturbances that occur in these very small neonatal rodents are difficult to assess by standard methodologies in adult animals. Successful testing of this prototype will lead to a commercial instrument for more widespread, collaborative beta testing in laboratory studies of metabolism and disease planned for Phase 2.
