Professor Giovanni Galizia is a neurobiologist and zoologist who is leading research on fruit flies' ability to "distinguish cancer cells from healthy cells via their olfactory sense". An international project, the main studies are being conducted at the University of Konstanz and the University La Sapienza in Rome, Italy. Not only are scientists finding that fruit flies are able to separate cancer cells from healthy cells, but they are able to distinguish which kind of cancer cell they are smelling. Experiments have been performed using dogs as test subjects before the scientists will feel confident enough to try it out with people. In their studies, scientists have found that "five different types of breast cancer cell lines were analyzed" by the fruit flies. The importance of the fruit flies identifying these cancerous subgroups is this: "The high sensitivity of the natural olfactory receptors, paired with the quickness with which [scientists] can generate these test results, might lead to the development of a cheap, fast and highly-efficient pre-screeing that can detect cancer cells well before we can discover them with the present diagnostic imaging techniques". Science is always evolving and findings like this are crucial to our future in the medical world.
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