Many potential applications for tunable odor detectors exist in medical diagnosis, toxic and explosive chemical detection, and food processing. Preliminary work for this application has developed the first known single-stranded DNA-Cy3 odor sensors for an artificial olfactory system. These DNA-Cy3 conjugates will provide a large array of novel odorant sensors dependent on DNA sequence and other conditions. A high throughput odor response screening process based on standard DNA library and microarray technologies is proposed here. This screening process will be used to identify sequences that have applications in a number of real-world health problems. Emission spectral analysis and DNA base swapping experiments will also be used to study mechanisms of DNA-Cy3 sensor odor response. Better understanding of the mechanisms involved in DNA-Cy3 odorant sensing will be valuable in developing an optimized detector system. The large array of sensors available in a DNA-based detector system will provide a powerful tool to find odorant sensors that will address health issues like lung cancer diagnosis, toxin and landmine detection, and spoilage in the food processing industry.
