A nose for diagnosis

Doctors may soon be able to detect odours which indicate the early warning signs of different illnesses thanks to technology that replicates and improves upon the human olfactory system using tiny bioelectronic sensors.

The new interdisciplinary technology approach is being developed and tested by researchers in Spain, France and Italy with funding from the European Commission’s FET (Future and Emerging Technologies) initiative of the IST programme. The aim is that it will ultimately lead to electronic noses based on natural olfactory receptors that could be used not only in healthcare but also in agriculture, industry, environmental protection or security.

“The potential uses of smell technology are endless,” said Josep Samitier, the coordinator of the SPOT-NOSED project that developed nanobiosensors to mimic the way human and animal noses respond to different odours.

The nose biosensor is made by placing a layer of proteins that constitute the olfactory receptors in animal noses on a microelectrode. By measuring the reaction when the proteins come into contact with different odorants, the system is capable of detecting odorants at concentrations that would be imperceptible to humans.