A hypersensitive “computer nose” was created in Russia

MOSCOW, December 13. A biohybrid “computer nose”, which is more than a million times more sensitive than its analogues, was created by SFU scientists, information about the development was published in the Journal of Analytical Chemistry.
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“We have created a hypersensitive system consisting of an animal with an array of microelectrodes implanted into its olfactory bulb. The system also includes an amplifier of biological signals, an analog-to-digital converter and special software based on a large set of neural networks,” said Petr Kosenko, leading researcher at the Scientific Research Center for Neurotechnologies of the Southern Federal University.

According to scientists, the development is application-oriented in security systems, it is also characterized by low cost and high speed of operation

Most mammals belong to the so-called macrosmatics — animals with a highly developed sense of smell. These species are able to distinguish extremely low concentrations of substances in the air.

This feature is widely used today in ensuring safety, but the effectiveness of specially trained animals is often low due to their behavioral characteristics, physiological state and a number of psychological factors when interacting with people.

A team of scientists from the Southern Federal University (SFU) has created a biohybrid system that allows you to integrate an animal into computer odor recognition to search for prohibited substances and check cargo.
The development, based on minimally invasive implants and neural networks, exceeds the best analogues in sensitivity by more than a million times , the authors emphasized, and you can “train” it on any new substance in just half an hour.
Thanks to the new system, it is possible to carry out detailed recording and analysis of what exactly the animal is inhaling at the moment, the scientists explained. According to them, the development cannot be deceived, like an ordinary trained animal, by disguising a prohibited substance using strong odors.

“Using a computer program, brain activity is read, and patterns of electrical signals corresponding to a specific substance or set of substances are extracted from it. We have achieved an increase in recognition sensitivity by about nine orders of magnitude compared to most technical analogues,” Kosenko noted.
< br />According to SFU scientists, the proposed system also differs from other modern methods of “computer smell” in its high speed of analysis and low cost.
As a “living sensor,” experts used rats put into medicated sleep and placed in a special portable box. There is no threat to the health of the animal, and each “work shift” lasts no more than two hours, the university reported.
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"This issue is being quite actively studied abroad, but so far there has been no deep and effective integration of mathematical and biological apparatus, as in our work, was not achieved,” commented Kosenko.

Laboratory studies showed one hundred percent effectiveness of the new system, the authors emphasized. The development is currently undergoing field testing.

The research is supported by the Advanced Research Foundation. This direction is one of the strategic ones for SFU within the framework of the state support program for universities «Priority 2030» of the national project «Science and Universities».