Owlstone Medical Appoints New Member to Scientific Advisory Board

Owlstone Medical, a global diagnostics company developing a breathalyzer for applications in early disease detection and precision medicine, thas appointed Dr. Richard A. Yost to its Scientific Advisory Board.
 
Dr. Yost, professor and head of analytical chemistry at the University of Florida, is an internationally recognized leader in the field of analytical chemistry. He has particular expertise in tandem mass spectrometry and is the co-inventor of the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, which today represents over $1 billion in sales each year. 
 
His research has been recognized with the highest award in the field, receiving the 1993 ASMS Award for Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry, as well as the 2018 MSACL Award for Distinguished Contribution in Clinical Mass Spectrometry. He currently serves as president of ASMS, the 7,000-member American Society for Mass Spectrometry.
 
Billy Boyle, co-founder and CEO at Owlstone Medical, commented, “Owlstone Medical has invested in building a mass spec capability as part of our Breath Biopsy discovery offering. We make this available to our academic and pharma partners conducting breath VOC research in a range of applications. We are fortunate to now be able to benefit from Richard’s extraordinary mass spec and metabolomics expertise, and I am very pleased to welcome him to our SAB.”
 
Breath Biopsy Conference 2018 is Owlstone Medical’s inaugural community meeting for breath researchers. 
 
Dr. Yost is best known for co-inventing the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer as a graduate student at Michigan State University. His professional activities have focused on research and teaching in analytical mass spectrometry, and his group’s research has reflected a unique balance between instrumentation development, fundamental studies, and applications in analytical chemistry. Their work has led to the development of novel applications of mass spectrometry in areas such as metabolomics, clinical, biomedical, pharmaceutical, environmental, and forensic chemistry, and has resulted in over 210 publications and more than 25 patents. Dr. Yost has supervised the research of over 115 graduate students during his almost 40-year career, and has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on grants and contracts totaling over $50 million of funding.
 
Owlstone Medical’s vision is to save 100,000 lives and $1.5 billion in healthcare costs by realizing the enormous promise of breath-based diagnostics through the development and application of Breath Biopsy. Breath Biopsy operates by detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced as the end product of metabolic processes within the body or as a result of chemicals from external sources such as diet or medication, changes in which can be characteristic of specific disease or indicate environmental exposure.
 
The Breath Biopsy platform includes ReCIVA, a proprietary sample collection device that can take stable breath samples anywhere, the world’s only commercial Breath Biopsy Laboratory located in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and the development of the world’s largest Digital Breath Biobank matched to patient phenotype. 
 
Owlstone Medical is deploying the platform to address some of the key challenges of 21st century healthcare. The focus is on the early detection of disease with an emphasis on cancer, with clinical trials underway to develop breath tests for the early detection of lung and colorectal cancer, and on precision medicine through partnerships with large pharmaceutical companies including AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline to enable therapeutics to be deployed more effectively. Owlstone Medical’s technology is currently in use at over 100 sites worldwide.