Researchers to build an artificial “bio-electronic” nose

Professor Hywel Morgan at the University’s School of Electronics & Computer Science (ECS) and Dr Peter Roach at the School of Chemistry and their team have received a European grant (€450k) to create a system that can detect single molecules in biological solutions.

They are using variants of molecules found in biology and creating ‘senses’ from electrical charges caused by the binding of the molecules to mimic the human nose. With this approach, the sensitivity of the device can be a thousand times better than the currently available electronic nose.

The receptors, which will be housed within an artificial membrane, remain in a closed steady state until approached by smell molecules, when they will open and transmit an electrical signal which will indicate the nature of the odour.

Professor Morgan comments: ‘Many medical diseases involve odour. A device such as ours could measure different hormones, diagnose diseases and even sniff for traces of explosives. Most odours are still mapped by humans. If we can find a way to replace this function with technology, we could use odour detection in many new areas’

Media Contact

Helene Murphy alfa

All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry

Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.

Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors