Certain ecological conditions trigger locusts to molt and secrete scents that bring in more locusts.1,2 After shedding their old body and singular presence, billions of locusts aggregate in devastating swarms that eclipse the sun and afflict people. Saha formerly used locusts for sniffing out bombs,4 making the transition to cancer detection an intriguing one. “Rather than back crafting a biological brain, we are forward crafting their computation,” Saha said.Sahas group analyzed whether they could obstruct the odor processing circuits in the locust brain to find and discriminate between human oral cancer cells grow in a flask, and reported their findings in Biosensors and Bioelectronics.5 They performed brain surgery on a locust and inserted electrodes into the brain regions that process smell. After pooling the outcomes from numerous locusts, Sahas group discovered that their brains produced an unique electrical pattern for each of the different cell types. Researchers are hacking the locust brain to identify the distinct smell signatures of oral cancers.
Certain ecological conditions activate locusts to molt and secrete pheromones that bring in more locusts.1,2 After shedding their old body and singular presence, billions of locusts aggregate in devastating swarms that eclipse the sun and plague human beings. Saha previously used locusts for sniffing out bombs,4 making the transition to cancer detection an intriguing one. “Rather than back engineering a biological brain, we are forward crafting their calculation,” Saha said.Sahas team examined whether they could obstruct the odor processing circuits in the locust brain to detect and discriminate between human oral cancer cells grow in a flask, and reported their findings in Biosensors and Bioelectronics.5 They carried out brain surgery on a locust and inserted electrodes into the brain regions that process smell.