Professor Bruce Kimball of the Monell Chemical Senses Center

"Spectrometry and mammalian noses: exploiting the volatile metabolome for disease detection and diagnoses"

A recent Web of Science TM search identified over 26,000 papers published in the past two decades describing the use of trained animals, electronic noses, or mass spectrometry to monitor health using the volatile metabolome. The number of diseases (chronic or infectious) and injuries studied during this time is equally impressive and the recent COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated intense interest for non-invasive health screening. Yet, there is still debate. Do observed alterations in bodily odors represent a non-invasive portal for monitoring human and animal health? Or, are these observations distracting our pursuit of more relevant biomarkers?