NRS Webinar-Breathomics

Speakers:

Dr. Agi Smolinska “Where scent meets diagnosis: decoding volatilome”

Dr. Paul Brinkman “Breathmoics- From lab to livingroom”

Dr. Agnieszka (Agi) Smolinska is an Associate Professor at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, specializing in volatile organic compounds (VOCs), chemometrics, and machine learning for biomedical applications. With over 16 years of experience, she applies advanced chemometrics to metabolomics, non-invasive diagnostics, and multi-omics research. Her interdisciplinary projects span clinical, analytical, and computational sciences, addressing challenges in respiratory, gastrointestinal, and liver diseases. She leads a research team and the NUTRIM Big Data Analysis Advice Committee, guiding innovations in data-driven healthcare. Dr. Smolinska has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, received multiple grants and awards, and has actively contributed to scientific education, mentoring, conference, advancing biomarker discovery and precision medicine in academic and industrial settings.

Dr. Paul Brinkman is a biomedical engineer and researcher at the Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Amsterdam UMC. With over 15 years of experience at the intersection of technology and clinicalresearch, his work focuses on developing innovative diagnostic tools and home-monitoring technologies in the field of respiratory health care. His research spans both adult and pediatric pulmonary medicine and extends into biomarker discovery projects in endocrinology and dermatology, aiming to improve early diagnosis and disease monitoring.

Paul obtained his PhD at the AMC-UvA under the supervision of Prof. P.J. Sterk and Prof. A.H. Maitland–van der Zee, where he investigated non-invasive breath analysis for respiratory diseases. His expertise lies in method development for sample collection and analysis, including chemical sensor and mass spectrometry-based technologies. These methods are applied in outpatient clinics, hospital wards, intensive care units, mobile settings and in vitro.

Currently, Paul leads ONELAB, a22-partner EU Horizon project that develops next-generation modular mobile laboratories for rapid disease detection and pandemic preparedness. He also founded PHEASANT, a pioneering initiative focused on chemical sensor-driventools for at-home monitoring of exhaled volatiles.