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In any case, animals are thought to sense chemicals that humans emit through body odor or breath. The mix of chemicals can vary depending on a person’s metabolism, which is thought to change when we get sick. However, dogs are expensive to train and care for. Debajit Saha, one of the scientists behind it, says it’s extremely difficult to make a device that mimics a dog’s nose. latest workhas not yet been peer-reviewed.

“These changes are almost one in a trillion,” says Saha, a neuroscientist at Michigan State University. This makes them difficult to catch even with the latest technologies, he adds. But animals have evolved to interpret such subtle changes in scents. So he and his colleagues decided to “hijack” an animal brain instead.

RESEARCHES’ PERMISSION

The researchers chose to work with grasshoppers because these insects have been so well studied in recent years. In a preliminary installation, they surgically exposed the brain of a living grasshopper. Saha and her colleagues then placed electrodes in their brain lobes, which receive signals from the antennae of the insects they use to detect odors.

The team also generated three different types of human oral cancer cells, as well as cancer-free human oral cells. They used a device to capture the gas emitted by each of the cell types and transmitted each of them to the grasshoppers’ antennae.

The locusts’ brains responded differently to each of their cell types. The recorded patterns of electrical activity were so distinct that when the team blew gas from one type of cell into the antenna, they were only able to accurately determine whether the cells were cancerous from the recording.

“This is the first time a living insect brain has been tested as a tool for detecting cancer,” Saha says.

Natalie Plank, who develops nanomaterial-based health sensors at Victoria University Wellington in New Zealand, thinks the work is “super cool.” “The potential to just breathe on something and then know if you’re at risk for cancer…it’s really powerful,” she says.

In the experiment, the team took brain recordings from multiple grasshoppers and combined their responses. It currently records from 40 neurons to get a clear signal, meaning the system requires six to 10 locust brains. But Saha hopes to use electrodes that can record from more neurons, which would allow her to record from the brain of a single grasshopper. He also hopes to be able to use the brain and antenna in a portable device that can then be tested on real people.