Thomas Nowotny, a brain professor from the University of Sussex in the UK, is leading a new study of fruit flies to develop electronic noses or e-noses that could help detect illicit drugs and explosives.

The new study shows that fruit flies have a strong sense of smell towards odors coming from drugs and substances used for explosives. Researchers aim to use the fly's nose to develop a new technology.

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It aims to develop sensitive electronic noses that perform faster than current technologies. Current electronic noses use metal-oxide sensors that are normally slow.

Fruit flies refer to many organisms such as the olive fruit fly, cucumber fly and melon fly. The common fruit fly, otherwise known as a vinegar fly, is mostly used in biological studies as a model organism.

Thomas Nowotny, working alongside researchers from the Monash University and CSIRO from Australia, said that dogs have the ability to smell drugs and bees were trained to identify explosives.

"Here we are looking more for what it is in the nose -- which receptors -- that allows animals to do this." Nowotny added.

"In looking at fruit flies, we have found that, contrary to our expectation, unfamiliar odors, such as from explosives, were not only recognized but broadly recognized with the same accuracy as odors more relevant to a fly's behavior."

Researchers monitored and recorded the responses of twenty different receptor neurons in fruit flies to 36 chemicals related to wine, and 35 chemicals related to materials found in drugs and explosives.

By monitoring each neuron, researchers were able to evaluate which odors evoked the strongest response from the flies.

The flies clearly reacted to twenty nine out of 36 chemicals from the wine, and responded to 21 out of the 35 chemicals found in drugs and explosives.

TagsFruit Fly, University of Sussex, Illicit drugs, Explosives, Common Fruit Fly, Vinegar Fly, Melon Fly, Olive Fruit Fly, Cucumber Fly, Monash University, CSIRO, UK, Australia, electronic noses, e-noses