DoggieNews: Making People Smell Like Dogs

Making People Smell Like Dogs

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Annanova reports that an American scientist discovered how to make humans as sensitive to smells as dogs.
Debra Ann Fadool, of Florida State University, has discovered a gene, called Kv1.3, which might help make humans as sensitive to complex smells as dogs and wolves.

In mice, deleting the gene increases sensitivity to odors by a factor of between 1,000 and 10,000.
In principle, it could be blocked with an appropriate drug, causing people to develop super olfactory senses. It might possibly put scent hounds out of work at airport terminals and checkpoints.