Frog Egg Cells Key Ingredient in Robotic Nose

[Frog News]

Livescience.com (Utah, USA) August 23rd, 2010 02:22 PM: Frog Egg Cells Key Ingredient in Robotic Nose

A chemical detector made from egg cells of the African clawed frog could give robots a new sense of smell.

About the size of a matchbook, the new device consists of two electrodes – strips of metal – and egg cells called oocytes (from the frog Xenopus laevis) covered with the equivalent of tiny insect "noses." When a chemical passes over the surface of the eggs, a specific electrical current is produced depending on the scent, creating a kind of fingerprint of the odorant.

This is not the first time frog eggs have been used to sniff out chemicals.

“People for many years, my lab especially, have been involved in work using Xenopus oocytes to express olfactory receptors,” said Laurence Zwiebel, professor at Vanderbilt University who was not involved in the study.

“It’s a very convenient system; it’s essentially a little factory cell that you can harvest very easily and make it work for you,” Zwiebel told TechNewsDaily.

However, the new study marks the first time frog eggs have been used in a robot, said Shoji Takeuchi, professor at the University of Tokyo and co-author of the study.

The new insect-sensor won’t be available commercially for about 15 years, Takeuchi said. However, the researchers hope to expand the sensor’s palette – enabling it to detect more odors, Takeuchi said.

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