Dr. Risby's research stresses the development of novel, highly sensitive analytical chemical approaches used as non-invasive biomarkers of tissue injury and disease, with primary application to the clinical setting. His laboratory has developed breath markers of biosynthesis of cholesterol, liver function and liver disease, and nutritional status. He has applied these techniques to human subjects of all ages, and in a variety of clinical situations, as, for example, in the premature infant and in patients undergoing transplantation surgery. More recently, he has initiated studies that are using his developed biomarkers of tissue injury to investigate the effects of exposure to environmental toxicants.

Dr. Risby's laboratory has a long-standing research interest in the inhalation of airborne particles with particular reference to emissions from mobile sources. The focus of these studies has been the development of theoretical models that can be used to predict the formation of airborne particulate matter and the subsequent release of adsorbed pollutant molecules in pulmonary surfactant and/or inside pulmonary phagocytic cells. These studies continue through investigations that are aimed at understanding the relationship between the physicochemistry of pollutant-particle complexes and the molecular biology of phagocytic and pulmonary epithelial cells.

Environmental Health Sciences, tissue injury and disease; liver and kidney cellular injury; oxidative stress in humans, obesity, breath biomarkers of disease, breath biomarkers of tissue injury, breath biomarkers of exposure, molecular basis of lung injury, airborne particulate matter, phagocytosis

Solga SF, Alkhuraishe A, Cope KA, Tabesh A, Clark JM, Torbenson M, Schwartz P, Magnuson T, Diehl AM and Risby TH. Breath Biomarkers and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Preliminary Observations. Biomarkers 11: 174-183 2006

Cope KA, Solga SF, Hummers LK, Wigley FM, Diehl, AM and Risby TH. Abnormal exhaled ethane concentrations in scleroderma. Biomarkers 11: 70-84, 2006.

Risby, T.H and Solga SF: Current status of clinical breath analysis. Appl Phys B. 85, 421-426, 2006 on line published http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00340-006-2280-4

Risby, T.H.: Current status of clinical breath analysis. Breath Gas Analysis for Clinical diagnosis and Therapeutic Monitoring Eds. A. Amann and D. Smith, World Scientific Publishing Singapore 2005, pp 251-266

Tu, R.H., Mitchell, C.S., Kay, G.G., and Risby, T.H. Human exposure to the jet fuel, JP-8. Aviat. Space Environ. Med. 75: 49-59, 2004

Cope, K.A. Watson, M.T., Foster, W.M. Sehnert, S.S., Risby, T.H: Effects of ventilation on the collection of exhaled breath in humans. J. Appl. Physiol. 96, 1371-1379, 2004.

Chin, B.Y., Trush, M.A., Choi, A.M.K., Risby, T.H: Transcriptional regulation of the HO-1 gene in cultured macrophages by a model airborne particulate matter. Am. J. Physiol., 284: L473-L480 (2003).

Risby, TH. Further discussion on breath condensate analysis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med, 167, 1301-1302, 2003.

Risby, TH Book Review: Biomarkers of Disease: An evidence-based approach. Clin. Chem., 49, 1233-4, 2003

Brown, R., and Risby, T.H: Monitoring distant organ reperfusion injury by volatile organic compounds.

Disease Markers in Exhaled Breath. Eds. N. Marczin, S. Kharitonov, M. Yacoub, P. Barnes. Marcel Dekker, London. pp. 281-306, 2002

Risby, T.H. Volatile organic compounds as markers in normal and diseased states. Disease markers in exhaled breath: Basic mechanisms and clinical applications, Eds. N. Marczin and M. Yacoub, NATO ASI Series, IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp. 113-122, 2002

Cope, KA, Merritt, WT, Krenzischek, DA, Schaefer, J, Bukowski J, Foster, WM, Bernacki E, Dorman, T, Risby TH.

Phase II collaborative pilot study: Preliminary analysis of central neural effects from exposure to volatile anesthetics in the PACU. J. Peri. Anesth. Nurs., 17: 240-250, (2002).

Sehnert SS, Jiang L, Burdick JF, and Risby TH: Breath biomarkers for detection of human liver diseases: A preliminary study. Biomarkers, 7: 174-187, (2002).

Risby, T.H. and Sehnert, S.S. Clinical application of breath biomarkers of oxidative stress status. Bio-Assays for Oxidative Stress Status (BOSS). Ed. W.A. Pryor. Elsevier, pp 48-58, 2001

Risby, T.H. Exhaled breath markers of reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress status. World Equine Airways Society, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2001.