A Nose for Coronavirus Detection

An innovative Weizmann Institute initiative helps individuals track their sense of smell and potentially detect early signs of COVID-19.

Numerous worldwide reports have indicated that an altered sense of smell may be a COVID-19 symptom. Countless people with confirmed cases of Coronavirus have stated that they have lost their sense of smell, or that it has changed significantly. While evidence of this phenomenon is still anecdotal, it can be helpful in detecting signs of COVID-19, especially in its early stages or when no other symptoms are experienced.

Prof. Noam Sobel has been studying the human sense of smell for many years, and is head of the Olfaction Research Group at the Weizmann Institute of Science. The group's profound olfactory research is the basis for SmellTracker, an online Weismann Institute platform that invites users to smell five household items and chart their individual smell characteristics via an advanced algorithm. These characteristics can then serve as olfactory coordinates. If the coordinates fluctuate, then users can use that information as a potential alert for early onset of COVID-19.

How does SmellTracker work?

SmellTracker is based on the notion that every person has a unique sense of smell. This unique “olfactory perceptual fingerprint” reflects a combination of genes and environment. The Weizmann Olfaction Group developed a mathematical method to capture these unique fingerprints, and project them into a perceptual axis-based space. Now, the scientists have built a simple online tool that uses household odors. Using this tool, they can project each person into this olfactory space, and chart the change in their sense of smell over time. Sudden changes may imply onset of disease. Moreover, the more data SmellTracker collects, the more likely the Weizmann Institute researchers may establish an olfactory perceptual fingerprint for the onset of COVID-19.

To enter SmellTracker: https://www.smelltracker.org/