AIRLAB: Engineering the Future of Respiratory Infection Science
Our work began during COVID-19, when major gaps became clear in how airborne infection risk was measured and managed. AIRLAB was created to move the field from assumption to evidence, combining clinical insight, engineering, aerosol science, virology, microbiology, infection prevention and patient partnership.
Our flagship programme is NESSIE: Non-invasive Exhaled Size-separated Infectivity Evaluation. Designed in Scotland, NESSIE is a novel breath-sampling platform that enables researchers to study respiratory infection directly from exhaled breath. It has been developed to support safe clinical research, measure infectious respiratory material, and explore the future diagnostic value of non-invasive lower-airway sampling.
Respiratory infections such as pneumonia, influenza and COVID-19 remain major causes of hospital admission, antibiotic use, intensive care treatment and healthcare-associated transmission. Yet clinicians often lack reliable, patient-friendly ways to sample infection from the lower respiratory tract. AIRLAB is addressing this unmet need by developing technology that can convert breath into meaningful biological information.
NESSIE-1 is our current research-use platform, developed through multidisciplinary engineering, laboratory validation, patient involvement and NHS clinical governance. The next stage, NESSIE-2, focuses on product development: improving usability, scalability, clinical workflow and the evidence needed for future diagnostic translation.
Our vision is to create a new foundation for respiratory infection science: better evidence for infection prevention, better tools for pandemic preparedness, and new routes toward non-invasive respiratory diagnostics.
We welcome collaboration with clinicians, engineers, scientists, industry partners, funders, students and patient representatives.
AIRLAB is turning breath into measurable biology, and measurable biology into safer, smarter healthcare.