A new scientist reported that U.S. researchers used nanoparticles to ‘smell’ the scent of illnesses in fluids of the body. The researchers used nanoparticles of gold with different coatings so that they can distinguish among different proteins and could be able to detect the illness.
As said by Vince Rotello from the University of Massachusetts the human nose has got a series of receptors, which react differently to different compounds. Thus the receptors do not react to a specific smell, but it is a generalized response produced by the receptors, that creates the smell.
Vince Rotello made a team with his colleagues from the university and with scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and then he applied the same ‘nose-principle’ to detect proteins.
The ‘nano nose’ is a system of six receptors, each one consisting of a solution with gold nano particles which are not larger than 2 nanometers, each one having a different coating too. Nitrogen atoms form the organic molecules which develops the coating of the nano particles.