Overview

• Thermal Desorption–Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry identified 55 volatile compounds in skin sebum that differentiate healthy individuals, those with isolated REM sleep behavior disorder and Parkinson’s patients.
• Joy Milne, the “super smeller” who first detected Parkinson’s by scent, correctly distinguished sebum swabs from prodromal and full Parkinson’s cases, including early identification in two iRBD participants who were later clinically diagnosed.
• A parallel validation study published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease showed that trained detection dogs pinpointed Parkinson’s signatures in patient skin swabs with high sensitivity.
• The multi-institutional collaboration includes the University of Manchester, Salford Royal NHS Trust and the University of Innsbruck working to refine the test’s accuracy and scalability.
• Developers now plan to translate the non-invasive swab into routine screening and longitudinal monitoring tools for earlier intervention and progress tracking.