Scientists have received funding for a military project that will genetically modify rats and make them ‘super sniffers.’
The goal of the project is to create a new generation of rodents that can sniff out drugs or explosives, with the scientists saying the experiment is a proof of concept.
In laboratory experiments, the rats were given DNA that improved their sensitivity to sweet-smelling chemical and tiny traces of an unpleasant odor they tried to avoid. The mutated rats could detect lower doses of these odours than non-mutated ones. The next step is to apply this research to detecting drugs or explosives.
The scientists, led by biologist Dr Paul Feinstein, wrote in the journal Cell Reports: “We have produced biosensors with an enhanced inherent sense of smell, which can be applied to address global health and safety challenges such as identification of explosives, contraband searches, and odour-based disease diagnosis.”
Dr. Feinstein told BBC that they can see this project being used in other areas not only in military and defence but also in human smell exploration and medicine since reports said that another possible benefit of the research includes a “nose-on-a-chip” that can diagnose diseases from their smell.
“We have these millions of years old receptors that are highly tuned to detect chemicals,” Prof Feinstein told BBC. “We think we can develop them into tools and use them to detect disease.”
The researchers said they had founded a company called MouSensor to commercialise the genetic engineering technology, reported Irish Examiner.
In Africa, rats are already being used to seek out landmines.
