Tel Aviv – Israeli Scientists Develop ‘Smell Fingerprint’ That Could Identify Every Human On Earth

    2

    (Reuters File Photo)Tel Aviv – Practically every human being has his or her own unique smell — an “olfactory fingerprint” that could be used to identify any of the seven billion people on Earth, according to Weizmann Institute of Science researchers who developed this fingerprint believe that just 34 different odors would be needed to do the job.

    Join our WhatsApp group

    Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


    The Rehovot researchers, who recently published their findings in the open-access journal Proceedings of the [US] National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) say that according to their computations, only 28 odors could be used to “fingerprint” some two million people and six more for all human beings.

    The implications of this study reach beyond the sense of smell alone and range from olfactory fingerprint-based early diagnosis of degenerative brain disorders to a non-invasive test for matching donor organs. The researchers think that olfactory fingerprinting, in addition to helping identify individuals, could be developed into methods for the early detection of such diseases as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and it could lead to non-invasive methods of initial screening as to whether bone marrow or organs from live donors are a good match.

    Each of us has, in our nose, about six million smell receptors of around four hundred different types. The distribution of these receptors varies from person to person – so much so that each person’s sense of smell may be unique. In their study, they report on a method of precisely characterizing an individual’s sense of smell, which they call an “olfactory fingerprint.”

    The method is based on how similar or different two odors are from one another. In the first stage of the experiment, volunteers were asked to rate 28 different smells according to 54 different descriptive words, for example, “lemony,” or “masculine.”

    The experiment, led by Dr. Lavi Secundo, together with Dr. Kobi Snitz and Kineret Weissler — all members of the lab of Prof. Noam Sobel of the institute’s neurobiology department, developed a complex, multidimensional mathematical formula for determining (based on the subjects’ ratings) how similar any two odors are to one another in the human sense of smell. The strength of this formula, said Secundo, is that it does not require the subjects to agree on the use and applicability of any given verbal descriptor. Thus, the fingerprint is odor dependent but independent of descriptors and language.

    The 28 odors make for 378 different pairs, each with a different level of similarity. This provides us with a 378-dimensional fingerprint. Using this highly sensitive tool, the scientists found that each person indeed has an individual unique pattern.

    The next stage of the research suggested that our olfactory fingerprint may tie in with another system of ours in which we all differ – the immune system. They found, for example, that an immune antigen called HLA — today used to assess matches for organ donation — is correlated with certain olfactory fingerprints. This part of the study was conducted together with Drs. Ron Loewenthal, Nancy Agmon-Levin,and Prof. Yehuda Shoenfeld of Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.

    Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post


    Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

    iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

    Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


    Connect with VINnews

    Join our WhatsApp group


    2 Comments
    Most Voted
    Newest Oldest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    8 years ago

    I would imagine some smells are more distinked then others.

    Rafuel
    Rafuel
    8 years ago

    I’m sure it will be especially effective in identifying arabs.