Her Majesty The Queen shown dog‑inspired electronic nose for prostate cancer detection

Her Majesty The Queen has been given a demonstration of a pioneering electronic nose  designed to detect prostate cancer—modelled on the extraordinary scent-detection abilities of dogs.

 

Dogs trained by Medical Detection Dogs – for which her Majesty is Patron - inspired US-based quantum physicist, Dr Andreas Mershin, to create the device as an early prostate cancer screening tool with his company, Realnose.ai.

 

Her Majesty was shown the device at Clarence House on Tuesday May 12th alongside some of the dogs that inspired this world-leading technological development.

 

Mershin and MDD have collaborated for over ten years exchanging knowledge, with MDD assisting in the training of the AI element of the e-nose which is now successfully detecting prostate cancer.

 

Her Majesty was also the first to hear the promising early results which will be shared more widely later this year.

 

A team of dogs’ performance in detecting aggressive prostate cancer in urine samples was previously published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One, showing a specificity of 74% and sensitivity of 71%. Remarkably, the dogs were also able to identify cancer in patients with other prostate conditions—an area where current PSA blood tests often fall short. 

 

The electronic device, created entirely thanks to the learnings of the dogs, analysed the same samples in order to compare the E-nose’s performance directly with that of the dogs.

 

Her Majesty has been Patron of MDD since 2014. In recent years, she has seen many Bio Detection Dogs at work such as cancer detection dogs and Covid-19 detection dogs.

 

As well as being shown how the E-nose works and the impact it could have on prostate cancer diagnosis around the world, Her Majesty saw a demonstration from bowel cancer detection dog, Jodie. This shows how dogs can detect multiple different types of cancer and therefore the potential of the E-nose to be converted in the same way.

 

Yellow Labrador, Jodie, sniffed 4 urine samples and correctly identified the one with the odour of bowel cancer.

 

Just like the electronic nose, she gave a clear indication to the positive sample. Her answer was much quicker but the electronic device has the ability to help early diagnosis at scale around the world.

 

 

Dr Claire Guest, Medical Detection Dogs CEO, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, says: “To create an electronic device informed by our dogs to be available as an early prostate cancer screening tool was part of my vision when I started this charity. When I connected with Dr. Mershin and discovered his desire to bring machine olfaction to humanity as a scalable, life-saving technology, I knew we would achieve it. Over ten years later, to be able to show Her Majesty, who has been part of this journey from the start, and always incredibly supportive, is an extremely special moment.”

 

Dr Mershin, founder of RealNose.ai, says: “I have spent nearly a decade inspired by Medical Detection Dogs as an MIT P.I. Research Scientist collaborating with MDD to replicate the dogs’ diagnostic accuracy as a scalable machine olfaction technology.

 

“We owe the dogs everything, including the latest success with the first ever side by side study on urine that has been already ‘diagnosed’ by dogs as well as, now, by RealNose machines. Knowing that the dogs and the machines are triggering on the same scent signal is key. We will soon publish these results and look forward to shouting them from the rooftops.”