Publications featuring Gram technology

Oct 2020

Assessing young adults' ENDS use via Ecological Momentary Assessment and a Smart Bluetooth enabled ENDS device

Zehan Li 1, Carson Benowitz-Fredericks 2, Pamela M Ling 3, Joanna E Cohen 4, Johannes Thrul 1

1Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
2Alcohol Justice.
3Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco.
4Institute for Global Tobacco Control, Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

View on PubMed

The second publication using Gram's smart vaporizer.

Authors used a custom app provided by Gram to passively and anonymously gather objective vaping data from real-world users. Ecological Momentary Assessments were made separately to compare how much users think they are vaping with how much they are actually vaping.

Sept 2020

Validation of a nicotine vapor self-administration model in rats with relevance to electronic cigarette use

Lauren C Smith12, Marsida Kallupi34, Lani Tieu2, Kokila Shankar12, Abigail Jaquish5, Jamie Barr5, Yujuan Su5, Nathan Velarde2, Sharona Sedighim2, Lieselot L G Carrette12, Mike Klodnicki6, Xin Sun5, Giordano de Guglielmo12, Olivier George78

1 Department of Neuroscience, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA, USA.
2 Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, CA, USA.
3 Department of Neuroscience, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA, USA. mkallupi@health.ucsd.edu.
4 Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, CA, USA. mkallupi@health.ucsd.edu.
5 Department of Pediatrics, University of California, La Jolla, CA, USA.
6 Gram Research, San Francisco, CA, USA.
7 Department of Neuroscience, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA, USA. olgeorge@health.ucsd.edu.
8 Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, CA, USA. olgeorge@health.ucsd.edu.

View on PubMed

Nature publication examining a new model of self-administration.

Gram was contracted to provide a custom integration of its vaping machines.

The client's previous systems were unable to achieve reliable nicotine peaks - and thus addiction - in the mice. After the addition of Gram's system, mice were provided sufficient and repeatable aerosol delivery for a reliable biochemical and behavioral addiction model.

Aug 2020

Dose-Dependent Pulmonary Toxicity of Aerosolized Vitamin E Acetate

Shotaro Matsumoto 1 2, Xiaohui Fang 3, Maret G Traber 4, Kirk D Jones 5, Charles Langelier 6, Paula Hayakawa Serpa 6, Carolyn S Calfee 7, Michael A Matthay 8, Jeffrey E Gotts 9

1University of California San Francisco, 8785, Cardiovascular Research Institute, San Francisco, California, United States.
2Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 13100, Intensive Care Medicine, Bunkyo-ku, Japan.
3University of California San Francisco, 8785, Departments of Medicine and Anesthesia, Cardiovascular Research Institute, San Francisco, California, United States.
4Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States.
5University of California, San Francisco, Pathology, San Francisco, California, United States.
6University of California, San Francisco, Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, San Francisco, California, United States.
7UCSF, Medicine, San Francisco, California, United States.
8Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI), University of San Francisco, Medicine and Anesthesia, San Francisco, California, United States.
9UCSF, San Francisco, California, United States; jeffrey.gotts@ucsf.edu.

View on PubMed

Study authors used the Gram Universal Vaping Machine to generate vapor from ceramic vape cartridges and expose lung cell cultures and adult mice.

The vape cartridges - often filled with cannabis oil extracts and sold on the legal and black markets - used in the study were filled with vitamin E. Mice and cell cultures were exposed to aerosol from the vitamin-E-containing vape cartridges. Authors noted toxic effects consistent with the EVALI outbreak and confirmed an important causal role of vitamin E in the recent vaping crisis.

June 2020

Reducing toxic reactive carbonyl species in e-cigarette emissions: testing a harm-reduction strategy based on dicarbonyl trapping

Bruna de Falco, af Antonios Petridis, ac Poornima Paramasivan, b Antonio Dario Troise, de Andrea Scaloni, e Yusuf Deeni, b W. Edryd Stephens c and Alberto Fiore a

a Division of Engineering and Food Science, School of Applied Science, University of Abertay, Bell Street, Dundee DD1 1HG, UK
b Division of Health Sciences, School of Applied Science, University of Abertay, Bell Street, Dundee DD1 1HG, UK
c School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, Irvine Building, North Street, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL, UK
d Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples II, Portici, Italy
e Proteomics & Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, ISPAAM, National Research Council, 80147 Naples, Italy
f Centre for Analytical Bioscience, Advanced Materials and Healthcare Technology Division, School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK

View on PubMed

Carbonyl products - like formaldehyde - in e-cigarette emissions have long been a concern. Here, study authors used the Gram Universal Vaping Machine to generate and capture e-cigarette emissions of several e-liquid variants to examine carbonyl content of emissions.

Notably, the authors examined the addition of polyphenols into e-liquids as an experimental variable. Polyphenols in the e-liquid appeared to have a protective effect by trapping the carbonyls.

Jan 2020

JUUL and Combusted Cigarettes Comparably Impair Endothelial Function

Poonam Rao1, Jiangtao Liu2, Matthew L Springer123

1 Division of Cardiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
2 Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
3 Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.

View on PubMed

Using the Gram Vaping Machine to administer and dose vapor from JUUL products, researchers studied the impact of JUUL use on endothelial function in mice and directly compared it to tobacco cigarettes.

Sept 2019

A Strategy for Efficiently Collecting Aerosol Condensate Using SilicaFibers: Application to Carbonyl Emissions from E‑Cigarettes

W Edryd Stephens 1, Bruna de Falco 1 2, Alberto Fiore 2

1 School of Earth & Environmental Sciences , University of St. Andrews , Irvine Building, North Street , St. Andrews , Fife KY16 9AL , Scotland , United Kingdom.
2 School of Applied Science, Division of Engineering and Food Science , University of Abertay , Bell Street , Dundee DD1 1HG , Scotland , United Kingdom.

View on PubMed

ACS publication examining the capture efficiency of silica fibers using the Gram Vaping Machine.

Researchers describe a highly efficient method of aerosol collection that requires only a single vaping session.

Sept 2018

Vascular endothelial function is impaired by aerosol from a single IQOS HeatStick to the same extent as by cigarette smoke

Nabavizadeh P1, Liu J1, Havel CM2, Ibrahim S3, Derakhshandeh R1, Jacob Iii P2,4, Springer ML1,3,4.

1 Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
2 Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
3 Division of Cardiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
4 Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.

View on PubMed

The first study to examine the effects of Philip Morris' heat-not-burn IQOS product in a physiological animal model.

June 2018

An Exploration of Smoking-to-Vaping Transition Attempts Using a “Smart” Electronic Nicotine Delivery System

Blank, M. L., Hoek, J., George, M., Gendall, P., Conner, T. S., Thrul, J., ... & Langlotz, T.

1 University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
2 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
3 University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.

View on PubMed

The first-ever study to use Gram's smart vaporizer.

Dec 2016

An electronic cigarette vaping machine for the characterization of aerosol delivery and composition

Christopher M Havel1, Neal L Benowitz1234, Peyton Jacob 3rd123, Gideon St Helen123

1 Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA.
2 Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco, CA.
3 UCSF Tobacco Center of Regulatory Sciences (TCORS), University of California, San Francisco, CA.
4 Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA.

View on PubMed

When we first contacted this esteemed research group at UCSF, we found that they had already created their own make-shift solution for producing smoke and vapor for research studies. Their piece-meal contraption seemed to work OK, but we identified significant margin for improvement in terms of consistency and reliability, which led us to design and build our own standardized laboratory vaping machine.

Unfortunately, the paper on Chris's old testing system was already written by the time our machine was ready for the spotlight, but we were still able add some valuable data. Researchers observed that the Gram vaping machine meets CORESTA standards for executing specific, square puff profiles. In contrast, researchers' old apparatus (with diaphragm pump) could not create the conditions specified under applicable testing standards.

The Gram vaping machine went on to be validated for use with tobacco cigarettes, under Health Canada Intensive and ISO testing conditions, and today is regularly used for generating smoke and vapor instead of the above-published solution.

Additional studies in review