Joy Milne, 72, noticed a strange smell on her husband Les before he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. After mentioning it to his doctor, she was connected with researcher Tilo Kunath, who began studying her unique ability to detect the disease by scent.
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“My grandmother had it,” she commented. “It’s hereditary. My two sisters have it as well.”
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In preliminary testing, Joy had to smell T-shirts worn by different people. She identified correctly who had the disease due to the specific odor that a chemical change in skin oil causes.
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She even identified someone in the placebo group, who was diagnosed many months later.
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Based on her abilities, specialists developed a simple 3-minute skin swab test. The test involves collecting sebum, an oily substance, from a patient’s upper back and analyzing it using mass spectrometry.
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h/t: NPR
Photos: University of Edinburgh, Chris Watt
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