Electronic noses explained: in future we will be sniffing out disease

Technology is being developed to create electronic devices that will be able to 'smell' the presence of diseases such as TB
strawberry smell
The electronic nose attempts to mimic the human olfactory system, which can immediately detect, for instance, that the 60-odd chemicals that make up a strawberry's odour are, in fact, a strawberry. Photograph: Zoonar GmbH/Alamy

Electronic noses could offer a rapid and non-invasive approach to diagnosing disease. But how do they work and what could the future hold? We ask expert Dr James Covington from the University of Warwick to explain.

What is an electronic nose?


How does it work?


Can't we just use dogs?


What will an electronic nose be used to diagnose?

If there is an easy test that can be done for 5p, for example, like a dipstick test, then there is very little point in using [an electronic nose] as it is unlikely to save the NHS money and time. Where it is best applied is for the diagnosis of conditions where current tests are either expensive, not sufficiently sensitive or do not provide a means [to] rapidly diagnose. One example could be in screening for colorectal cancer, where current tests are only 40% accurate and people don't like using stool samples.

Is it commercialised yet?

There are a few products on the market and these are fairly recent. The potential for this technology has been known for more than 20 years but what is happening now is that the sensor technology is starting to catch up with these aspirations. I think that you'll see – probably in the next five years – an explosion of portable devices [that you can] attach to your mobile phone.

What's the future?

Though I see electronic nose technology being used in both primary and secondary care, the future could well be in personalised healthcare, to provide a non-invasive means of diagnosing and monitoring heath. The other key area is going to be [for] use in developing countries - it has already been shown that you can detect TB with these instruments on the breath, so the opportunities for a spectrum of disease detection is vast.