Doctoral Defense - Simon Sanchez

About the Event

The Department of Biomedical Engineering

Michigan State University

Ph.D. Dissertation Defense

July 14, 2025 at 10:00AM EST

1404 ISTB Building and Zoom

Contact Department or Advisor for Zoom Information

ABSTRACT

SCENTS AND SENSE-ABILITIES: USING INSECT OLFACTION FOR THE DETECTION OF ENDOMETRIOSIS

By: Simon Sanchez

Advisor: Prof. Debajit Saha

Endometriosis is a chronic gynecological disease. Women with endometriosis experience a substantial decrease in quality of life which is amplified by the diagnostic delay that ranges from 4 to 11 years. Barriers to early diagnosis and treatment are a result of the current standard of surgical diagnosis via a diagnostic laparoscopy. Thus, a shift from surgical diagnosis to a clinical one is imperative. This dissertation presents a novel biosensor for the detection of endometriosis using the insect olfactory system combined with electronic and computational tools. This biosensor is able to detect and classify multiple endometriotic vs endometrial cell lines by their ‘scent’ or emitted volatile organic compound (VOC) mixture. VOCs are carbon-based chemicals emitted from the human body via biological fluids and the composition/concentrations of VOCs are influenced by metabolic processing which could be altered when the body is in a diseased state. For a systemic and complex disease that is endometriosis, a chemical gas sensor for generalizable odor recognition would be essential to achieve sufficient detection capabilities. Living organisms use biological olfaction to detect VOC mixtures via their robust odor recognition capabilities which can be employed for disease detection. This work addresses the potential of using VOCs for endometriosis detection by harnessing the chemosensory array and coding mechanisms of biological olfaction and combing it with both electronic and computation techniques for neural recording and odor classification. Collectively, this work moves toward a VOC-based diagnostic that can offer noninvasive detection of endometriosis capable of improving quality of life for patients.

Persons with disabilities have the right to request and receive reasonable accommodation. Please call the Department of Biomedical Engineering at 884-6976 at least one day prior to the seminar; requests received after this date will be met when possible.