Wine, cheese, and raspberries on the olfactory biosensor menu

Researchers at IRIG joined forces with a team from Dijon to develop olfactory biosensors capable of fixing and recognizing the aromatic compounds in cheese (hexanoic acid), wine (hexanal), and raspberries (ß-ionone). The researchers designed and tested several genetic variants of proteins from the rat olfactory system for the biosensors. Although their research is still at the proof-of-concept stage, it does bode well for future developments.

The biosensors developed offer the advantages of a very low detection threshold, high selectivity, and good measurement reproducibility. New variants of the proteins could be used to identify other VOCs—a capability that could be useful for industrial and domestic applications. The human nose is very easily “saturated” by VOCs, which makes it difficult for humans to effectively smell these substances.

Contact: yanxia.hou-broutin@cea.fr

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