From a new asthma detector to using AI responsibly – research at Northumbria University is driving change

Yahoo

2 days ago

Diagnosing lung conditions has traditionally been a difficult – and very expensive – task. Obtaining fluid samples from deep inside organs which are tucked away within our ribcage can't be done without a highly invasive, risky procedure. And most sampling devices can't tell the difference between fluids from the lung and ones from the mouth, often leading to unclear or misleading diagnoses.
As a result, millions of patients with common, chronic conditions such as asthma have been left waiting years for effective treatment, while millions of others have been hospitalised with pneumonias impossible to diagnose with current tests.
All that is set to change with the launch of a new handheld device later this year, developed by Dr Sterghios A Moschos, a renowned molecular biologist and visiting professor at Northumbria University, which will revolutionise the diagnosis of these diseases.
The new breath-sampling technology by PulmoBioMed, a Northumbria University spin-out founded by Moschos in 2020, offers a fast, non-invasive and inexpensive way to test for lung conditions. Called the PBM-Hale, it captures the breath as the patient exhales and separates the droplets that come from the mouth from those found deep in the lung. It has been shown in clinical studies to help quantify lung infections and inflammation in 100% of symptomatic cases.
'PBM-Hale has the potential to transform respiratory care,' says Moschos. 'It is more than 40 times cheaper than endoscopy, where a tube is inserted into the lung, which carries a one-in-seven risk of injury.
'There are seven different types of asthma, and we hope this will allow doctors to quickly diagnose not just the condition but the exact type, without having to try several different kinds of treatment to see if the patient responds.'
The device is one of a growing number of pioneering innovations being developed by researchers at Northumbria University to tackle some of the biggest real-world challenges facing us, regionally, nationally and globally.
The first to be commercialised, the PBM-Hale is likely to be followed soon by the portable Solar2Water system developed by the university's department of mechanical and construction engineering, which uses solar energy to extract moisture from the air and turn it into water. The unit could be a gamechanger for remote regions where there is no grid connection or water availability nearby. Running on solar energy alone, it can be deployed quickly and easily to any location, such as army camps and field hospitals, or to support displaced communities in refugee camps and disaster zones.
Moschos credits much of the success of his innovation to the support he received from the university at every step of the process. 'Since I arrived at Northumbria in 2016 and told them the idea I was working on, I couldn't have asked for more,' he says. 'They gave me everything I needed to create the device, supported the patent and grant applications and helped us apply for programmes to commercialise academic research.'
PulmoBioMed raised an extraordinary £1.4m in an investment round last year to help grow its business, as well as a £700,000 grant from Innovate UK.
It's these kinds of groundbreaking advances that have powered Northumbria's meteoric rise through the ranks for research: in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF2021), Northumbria made the biggest leap of any UK university in research power, climbing from 50th in 2014 to 23rd in 2021. It was the second time Northumbria achieved this impressive feat, after previously rising from 80th place in 2008.
Building on this momentum, and with a mission to create new knowledge that shapes change, Northumbria is investing in, and attracting funding for, new research innovations that will have an impact on society and the economy.
One of its most ambitious projects to date is the North East Space Skills and Technology centre (NESST). A state-of-the-art facility being developed by the university, NESST is the result of a £50m investment with partners including the UK Space Agency and Lockheed Martin UK Space that will create new knowledge and skills intended to transform the UK's space economy.
'We doubled the value of our research awards in the last year,' says Prof Louise Bracken, Northumbria's pro vice-chancellor for research and knowledge exchange. 'Not only does that money fund more research, it also demonstrates the value of that research to others.'
The university's social mobility ethos – approximately 40% of its undergraduates are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and 65% are from the north-east region – also underpins many of its research projects.
Overcoming social inequities is central to all the research done by another of its biggest schemes, the Centre for Health and Social Equity (CHASE). 'We're working with people experiencing homelessness, vulnerable adults, children and young people and veterans, to drive policy to better serve their needs. We want to ensure our research has tangible benefits for society and the environment. That's our USP at Northumbria,' says Bracken.
The principle of benefiting society is also at the heart of the work being done by professor of law Marion Oswald, who leads a flagship research project. The multimillion-pound PROBabLE Futures project, in collaboration with several other universities as well as partners from law enforcement and commercial tech, explores how AI can be adopted responsibly in law enforcement and the criminal justice system.
The 'probable' in PROBabLE Futures refers to the fact that AI produces results which are probabilities, but not certainties. This means that great care needs to be taken when using AI in the criminal justice system to avoid unfairness and miscarriages of justice.
'We're looking at how these AI systems are being used in policing, potentially becoming part of criminal justice – in the US, they're even being used to help determine sentences – and then in prisons and with probation,' she says. 'We're also thinking about whether this sector should have new independent oversight.'
The team's AI checklist for policing has recently been adopted by the National Police Chiefs' Council – an instance of the university's research making a significant impact in the real world.
It is this type of outward facing research that has inspired the university's brand-new Northumbria Centre for Responsible AI.
'As AI becomes widespread, we're pulling together all the research, experience and expertise at the university to look at how we make sure it's being used for the public good,' says Oswald. 'It's one of the biggest issues of our time, so it's really exciting.'
Many applications of AI are relatively mundane, but others will have far-reaching consequences for people's lives, 'like deciding whether somebody should get a government benefit or not, or deciding whether somebody should be put on a police watchlist', she says. 'We're concerned that the public sector thinks very carefully about how it implements this technology and that people should have the skills and knowledge to navigate this new AI-informed world.'
Find out more about how Northumbria University is shaping futures and driving change