Medical - Tuberculosis Detection

Medical diagnostics are often expensive, time consuming and require complex laboratory equipment. Olfactory sensors that "smell" diseases have generated much interest as they promise cheap, quick, non-invasive and reliable diagnosis of a variety of conditions. This is especially important to developing countries, which often have little money and few resources to combat disease in their populations.

Inscentinel, in a study conducted with London School of Hygiene and tropical Medicine, has shown that bees could be used as effective diagnostics of disease. Working with tuberculosis, Inscentinel trained honeybees to recognise the volatiles emitted from the BCG vaccine Mycobacterium bovis BCG. The bees were then able to differentiate between this and the environmental mycobacteria M. smegmatis M. aurum .

Honeybees are found all over the world, and the equipment required is relatively simple and inexpensive. Inscentinel's technology could be deployed by first and third world countries alike for medical diagnostics both in the laboratory and in the field, ultimately protecting people and saving lives.