The UIBK is western Austria’s largest institution of higher education and research and covers a broad range of teaching areas. The UIBK is organized into 16 faculties, 76 departments and 41 research platforms and centres. More than 28,000 students are studying and about 4,500 staff members are employed at the University of Innsbruck. The University of Innsbruck has earned worldwide reputation for its pioneering work in quantum informatics and quantum information and in ion physics (with development of proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry – a key technology being used in WP1 of this action). Over the past 10 years, the University of Innsbruck has coordinated more than 40 EU-projects and has taken part in over 100 EU-projects.
The Institute for Breath Research, Innsbruck, Austria (Director Prof. Chris A. Mayhew) is a world leading institution in the field of human volatilomics, namely pioneering studies of the chemical fingerprint formed by volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in human gases, fluids and tissues (e.g. breath, urine, skin emanations, blood, and cell lines) involving advanced analytical techniques (GC-MS, IMS, PTR-MS, SIFT-MS, sensors) for pharmacokinetic studies, and medical diagnosis, monitoring and screening. The Institute for Breath Research has coordinated and participated in more than 30 domestic and international scientific projects focused on breath research. In particular, the Institute for Breath Research coordinated the EU-project BAMOD (LSHC-CT-2005-019031), and is currently a beneficiary in the EU projects; SNIFFPHONE (H2020-ICT-2014-644031) “Smart Phone for Disease Detection from Exhaled Breath”, and IMPACT (“Ion Molecule Processes for Analytical Chemistry Technologies” H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015). The Institute was also a beneficiary in SGL for USaR (FP7-SECURITY-217967).
In the ONELAB project, UIBK’s main role is the management and coordination of WP 4: Design, Development and Delivery. The key objectives of this WP are: (i) Development of a data analytics workflow, incorporating advanced multivariate statistical, machine learning, and AI algorithms for analysing high-dimensionality data for recognition of novel biomarkers. (ii) Transfer discovery to delivery to achieve bench to bed through a coordinated action involving close collaboration between partners; (iii) Develop the proposed highly mobile platforms to enhance clinical capability and capacity through the rapid diagnosis of infection, and for theranostic assessment, for example trial vaccinations and treatments. (iv) Refine and automate features such as data acquisition and interpretation and software integration, making the technology simple-to-use (“one button device”) during routine clinical use through intuitive point and click graphical user interfaces. Implementation of the diagnostic panel at the Point of Care (PoC) and rigorous clinical tests to verify successful translation and application. In addition to a major role in analytical analysis of clinical breath samples (associated with WP 4), the UIBK is involved in project management (WP 1), Dissemination (WP 2), Synergy and Network Integrations (WP 3), Integration Testing and Demonstration (WP 5) and Future Concepts (WP 6).
