VOGAS

VOGAS partners share their thoughts on the main challenges faced during the last 3 years. From unforeseen challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine to predicted risks as technical and logistical issues.

Individual interviews with transcripts in 5 languages are available here: /vogas-intervew-series/

From September 27 to 30, 2022, the final consortium meeting of the VOGAS project took place in Georgia.

In course of its implementation, the aim of the VOGAS project has been to carry out the clinical approbation of the latest generation stationary breath analyzer for the early diagnosis of cancer and to clarify the sources of volatile markers. Using the latest generation stationary breath analyzer for determination of volatile markers, the project participants performed breath analyzes in clinical settings, evaluating the device’s usability and accuracy, as well as perfecting this non-invasive cancer detection method.

During the meeting, partners discussed the accomplishments during the course of the project implementation period, mainly focusing on operation of the equipment and its improvement and application possibilities, as well as the results of the clinical study and the discovered biomarkers. Several publications are currently being developed on the main results.

With this meeting, the VOGAS project has officially been concluded, however, the established cooperation continues by implementing other Horizon Europe projects.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824986

From 21st to 24th August, 2022, a face-to-face meeting of partners of the VOGAS project took place in Israel, Haifa.

While the meeting, the administrative manager of the project Liat Zuri and the leading expert of the University of Latvia Institute of Clinical and Preventive Medicine (UL ICPM, Latvia) Iveta Eniņa discussed the preparation for the final stage of the project, including the final report preparation and audit, as well as discussed other administrative issues.

While the meeting with the scientific manager of the project Gidi Shani, the organization of the final meeting of the VOGAS project partners was discussed, as well as the potential cooperation in other projects, including the recently approved LUCIA project (“Understanding Lung Cancer related risk factors and their impact”) – that is planned to be kick-started on 1st January, 2023, and is supported by the European Union program “Horizon Europe” sub-programme “Research and Innovation actions supporting the implementation of the Mission on Cancer”.

The meeting took place at the headquarters of the VOGAS project leading administrative partner, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, where the representative of the UL ICPM also got to know the work of the Technion’s technical laboratories.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824986

From 7 to 16 May, the VOGAS project consortium met in South America, Brazil.

In Manaus and the São Paulo Clinical Center, the team conducted a detailed analysis planning, discussed clinical activities at each center, provided an up-to-date insight into project outcomes, and continued the development of the breath test screening / early detection equipment, started in the VOGAS project.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824986

At the end of March, LU KPMI hosted the partner of the project VOGAS, the senior research scientist of the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Veikko Ikonen. Meanwhile his stay, he visited the Latvian Oncology Centre, as well as met with the medical staff of the LU KPMI. Employees who work with patients on a daily basis presented the clinical activities of the VOGAS project, patient recruitment processes and the conduct of breath tests. V. Ikonen was also introduced with the LU KPMI Biobak and the processes of collection and storage of biological samples of patients. The main ethical aspects of the study, ensuring a safe conduct of the study for patients, were also discussed during the meeting.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824986

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020 and a pandemic on 11 March. In order to protect the population from possible infection with COVID-19, most countries, included our project partners’ countries, announced the emergency situation, which limited job opportunities in the institutions.

It should be stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic situation significantly affected VOGAS project activities.  The strict restrictions limited the work of all partners and thereby the progress of the research. These pandemic-related problems include delays in purchase/delivery of laboratory consumables and materials caused by the broken supply chains, delays and problems during the transport of samples between laboratories and limited human resources etc.

Considering these reasons project has been extended till September 2022.

The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824986 

In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the XXXIV International Workshop of the European Helicobacter and Microbiota Research Group was held online.

Among other participating researchers from all over Europe, results of our project were reported by researchers from the University of Innsbruck, Daria Slefarka and Pawel Mochalski. The two researchers who are actively involved in project’s clinical activities, presented a report titled ‘Ex-vivo profiling of volatile organic compounds released from gastric cancer and non-cancerous tissue’.

Abstracts from the event are available here: https://www.microbiotajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2021/09/Book-Abstracts-NEW.pdf

The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824986 

This special exhaled breath analyser have a combine electronic nose concepts utilizing gold nanoparticles and metal oxide sensors with orthogonal mid-infrared spectroscopic techniques for obtaining multi-dimensional analytical data sets. 

The healthy individuals are invited to participate in validation study. All of participants donate breath sample in all five hybrid VOGAS prototypes.  

The VOGAS project aim is a developing a non-invasive gastric cancer screening tool by detecting characteristic panels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). 

The first clinical trials of the VOGAS project were started in November 2019 at the University of Latvia in cooperation with the Riga East Clinical University Hospital and the Digestive Diseases Center “GASTRO”. 

After validation study, the clinical studies will be conducted in parallel in European (Latvia, Ukraine) and Latin American (Colombia, Brazil, Chile) countries. Patients with gastric cancer and individuals with and without precancerous lesions will be enrolled. 

* Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 824986

The results obtained in the international project SNIFFPHONE *, in which an exhaled air analysis device to be connected to a smartphone has been developed, confirm the usefulness of the technology in the diagnosis of gastric cancer. In March, these results were published in the internationally acclaimed magazine CANCER.

In the SNIFFPHONE project, scientists developed a special device that can be connected to a mobile phone. The portable “electronic nose” will allow artificial intelligence to analyze the exhaled air and determine with good accuracy whether a person has stomach cancer or a precancerous condition. Scientists from Latvia, Israel, Germany, Ireland, Austria and Finland are involved in the project. The clinical part of the study was performed in Latvia and in our country the group was led by Mārcis Leja, Director of the Institute of Clinical and Preventive Medicine (LU KPMI), University of Latvia. The research work of the institute was carried out in close cooperation with the specialists of the Riga East University Hospital and the Academic Histology Laboratory, as well as the Digestive Diseases Center GASTRO.

Within the framework of the project, LU KPMI implemented patient involvement and device testing in clinical conditions. A recent scientific article featured a clinical study of 274 patients using an “electronic nose” to test their breath. 94 of them had a confirmed diagnosis of stomach cancer and surgery, while the rest were healthy and had an endoscopy. Analysis of sensor data revealed significant differences in exhaled air between patients with gastric cancer and 113 control participants with normal endoscopy results. The device also helped to detect, for example, pre-cancerous conditions of the stomach in 67 high-risk patients with relatively acceptable accuracy, which were then confirmed by additional analyzes.

The researchers emphasize that this device plays a particularly important role in the early diagnosis of gastric cancer, which would avoid late-onset cases and reduce patient mortality accordingly. In addition, the technology is relatively inexpensive, works quickly and accurately, and is non-invasive. For comparison, endoscopy, magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography are usually used to diagnose stomach cancer. In addition, the Sniffphone is portable, which allows it to be used outside the laboratory. The potential use of the new device is very wide and could be used in the future to detect and monitor other diseases.

Work on the development of an exhaled air analyzer is currently continuing in the framework of another international project – VOGAS *, which plans to make this device even more accurate.

Within the VOGAS project an article “The The Volatile Mic Footprints of Human HCG-27 and CLS-145 Stomach Cancer Cell Lines ” has been written!

Congratulations to the authors!

You can read the full manuscript in “Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences”: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2020.607904