'Artificial Noses' Coming to a Crime Lab Near You

Sept. 30, 2008 -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists said Monday they have moved closer to creating "artificial noses," after finding a way to mass-produce smell receptors in a laboratory.

Artificial noses could one day replace dogs that sniff out drugs and explosives, and could have numerous medical applications including identifying diseases that have distinct odors, according to Shuguang Zhang, associate director of MIT's Center for Biomedical Engineering and senior author of a study on the subject.

"Smell is perhaps one of the oldest and most primitive senses, but nobody really understands how it works," said Zhang.

"It still remains a tantalizing enigma."

In seeking to recreate smell, the MIT RealNose project seeks to recreate the most complex and least-understood of the five senses.

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Human smell systems are vast, including almost 400 functional genes, but dogs and mice far exceed human capacity, with around 1,000 functional olfactory receptor genes.

The variety of smell receptors allows humans and animals to discern tens of thousands of distinct odors.