Meccanica Magazine n. 4

ENG
Seven international partners join forces to help people with loss of
smell: the ROSE project
On the 1st of September 2021, the ROSE (Restoring Odorant Detection
and Recognition in Smell Deficits) project kicked off. The project has
been awarded 3M€ by the Horizon 2020 European Innovation Council
Pathfinder Pilot programme (formerly FET Open).
The EIC Pathfinder Pilot programme funds and supports early-stage,
science and technology research by consortia exploring novel ideas
for radically new future technologies that challenge current paradigms
and venture into the unknown, with the aim to generate genuine
societal or economic innovations.
Seven international partners, coordinated by the French National
Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and, more precisely, by the
Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL, CNRS / Inserm / Claude
Bernard Lyon 1 University), join forces to advance technology in assisting
people with anosmia.
Partial and total loss of smell (respectively hyposmia and anosmia)
impacts 20% of the global population with adverse effects on quality
of life. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that nearly one in two
Covid-positive people worldwide suffers from olfactory loss, which
persists in some cases.
Unlike other sensory systems, there is currently no advanced technology
that can partially or totally restore the sense of smell. The ultimate
goal of the ROSE project is to develop a proof of concept combining
miniaturized odour sensors and stimulation arrays that will be evaluated
in patients with smell disorders. This research is interdisciplinary
and combines nanotechnology, microtechnology, biotechnology, mechanical
design, neurosurgery, clinical olfaction, neuroscience and
cognitive psychology.
The role of Politecnico di Milano - Department of Mechanical Engineering
is to develop the methodology for the acquisition and modelling
of the nasal cavity of subjects to use in the design of the bespoke miniaturized
artificial noses, and to design, simulate, manufacture and
test prototypes of bespoke miniaturized artificial noses.
The other international partners of the project are École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne (Suisse), University of Thessaloniki (Greece),
University of Dresden (Germany), Aryballe (France,) and French
Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA, France).
In addition to its core objective, the ROSE project will open up new
scientific and technological possibilities for the miniaturization of
affinity sensors for other applications. These include smarter household
appliances, R&D and quality control for food, flavours and fragrances,
and new neural stimulating approaches for neuroscience
research.
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