BreatHE In Grant success!

Following the participation of the BreatHE IN sandpit held on 29th May 2026, the Biodetection Technologies Hub has won 2 Feasibility study funding provided by BreatHE IN EPSRC Micro Network +, focusing on Diagnosis and Monitoring for Heathier Indoor Environments.

The first awarded project is led by Hub member Dr Ian Crawford (Research Fellow, University of Manchester), where he will be teaming up with Hub members from the University of Hertfordshire (Richard Baxter, Professor Ian Johnston, Professor Chris Stopford, Richard Kaye, Dr Etelka Chung, Dr Javier Montiel, Dr Milad Heidari-Koochi and Dr Jianghan Tian) and supported by Dr Emma Marczylo and Dr Alison Buckley from the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA). This project will be conducted at Cranfield University to evaluate innovative, real-time, low-cost sensing technologies capable of continuously monitoring airborne fungal spores in mould-affected buildings, thereby improving understanding of public and occupational exposure.

The second awarded project is led by Dr Alba Llibre (Assistant Professor in Immunometabolism, University of Birmingham), who will work with Hub member Professor Loic Coudron, along with Dr Shaokai Hong (CEO and Co-Founder of Respire Diagnostics (REDI)) and Public Health Registrar, Dr Gabriella Morley. This project will investigate whether airborne lactate, a biomarker associated with infection and altered metabolism, can be reliably detected from indoor air by integrating aerosol collection with digital microfluidic recovery and sensitive analytical techniques.

Well done team! Looking forward to the exciting research and results these grants will produce.