A Professor from the University of Illinois, Ken Suslick has recently developed an ‘artificial nose’. It has been claimed that 6the artificial nose could be used for the detection of infectious bacteria.

The nose is a system incorporating cards printed with an array of 36 cross-reactive pigment dots. These dots change their color as soon as they detect chemicals in the surrounding air. The pattern of color change over time is unique to each bacterium. These chemicals are often produced by the metabolizing bacteria.

Traditionally, hospitals use blood cultures as the standard for identifying blood-borne bacterial infections. The blood samples are incubated for 24 to 48 hours to detect the presence of bacteria.

The Professor claims that the array of nose could be used to diagnose a much wider variety of infections. Medical researchers have already performed the tests using Suslick’s arrays to diagnose sinus infections and to screen for lung cancer. The array technology of Suslick has been commercialized for clinical use by the device company iSense, which is co-founded by Suslick.

Medical researchers are now preparing for next trails of the array so that other benefits could be identified.