Jérôme joined Bachem in October 2022 as a Scientist QC. He holds a PhD in chemistry from the ETH Zurich. In his role, he works on the quality control of oligonucleotide drug substances, which involves the development and application of validated chromatographic methods. He also works on developing analytical methods for oligonucleotide starting materials, which involve a lot of mass spectrometry. What he enjoys most is interpreting the analytical data. He describes it as playing “chemical Sudoku”.

Relevance of this medal:

The ETH medal is an award by ETH Zurich for outstanding research theses. This academic distinction was awarded since 1870 to some of the most notable Swiss scientists, including, for example, Chemistry Nobel laureate Richard R. Ernst.

Outside of work, Jérôme is interested in art and design, which means he visits galleries and museums to discover the latest trends. His favorite thing to do, however, is to create computer-generated images himself. He is particularly fond of a niche art style called photorealistic surrealism.

We talked to Jérôme to learn more about his motivation for this dissertation and his plans for the future.

What sparked your interest in this particular research area?

Although the field of breath analysis is exciting, it was not so much the application as the method of analysis, mass spectrometry, that interested me. Mass spectrometry is a very old technique. It is older than most other instrumental analytical techniques. Yet there is still so much to learn from and about it today. It is fascinating how this analytical technique has developed with chemistry over the last 120 years.

How does this fit in with your personal and professional goals?

Admittedly, we have not detected peptides or oligonucleotides in human breath. They are not sufficiently volatile or not abundant enough in the exhaled aerosol. From this perspective, I had to learn a lot about the analytes at Bachem, which are much heavier molecules than the ones I worked with before. However, my main interest during my dissertation was mass spectrometry. As we use this technique all the time at Bachem, I can build on the expertise I gained during my PhD.

Can you describe the impact that you are hoping to achieve with this research, and where do you see the potential for further projects in the future?

As with everything in this area of research, the main goal is to make diagnostics faster, cheaper, and non-invasive. However, the field as such is very much evolving. The next step is undoubtedly to validate the found diagnostic molecules, to ensure their robust detection, and to bring such a method into clinical routine.

In the long term, the technical challenge will be miniaturizing the analytical technology. So far, large mass spectrometers have been used for clinical trials. However, it would be cheaper and more convenient to use smaller instruments. The transition from high-end instrumentation to more affordable hardware will undoubtedly be a challenge to overcome in the future.

Where is there still potential, and what are the current trends that researchers are actively exploring?

Moving the technology from academia to a commercial environment will be an important milestone. Doing this together with partners from the industry would give a helpful boost to the whole process. Looking at trends, there is a lot going on in nutritional science, for example, what information can be gleaned about a person’s metabolism, diet, or allergies from breath analysis.

Are there any current technological advances or developments that could open up new avenues for research in this field?

The field is certainly benefiting from the current boom in artificial intelligence. Sophisticated data analysis algorithms are now easier to implement than ever before. There is also an increasing amount of excellent software that helps to decipher the chemical structures of unknown molecules detected by mass spectrometry.

What are the most pressing challenges or unresolved issues facing researchers in this field?

There is a need for more standardization. Imagine, here in the QC department at Bachem, we have numerous reference materials to ensure reliable results over time and in different locations. However, there is no reference material for human breath because it is a much more complicated sample than you might think: volatile compounds in a humid atmosphere and aerosol. Until now, no one knew how to produce, store, and handle such a material.

Where do you see yourself going in the future?

After all, my passion is mass spectrometry. I plan to continue working on many mass spectrometry projects. There will undoubtedly be many opportunities for this at Bachem.