Body odours may be the new ‘fingerprints’: Study reveals we have unique, detectable ‘microbial clouds’

FARTS. Breath. Sweat. We are all permanently surrounded by our own ‘microbial cloud’. Research shows this bacterial blend is so unique it can be used to identify us.

Young man, smiling, sitting between man and woman holding noses

FARTS. Breath. Sweat. We are all permanently surrounded by our own ‘microbial cloud’. Research shows this bacterial blend is so personalised that it can be used to identify us.

It’s long been known that many billions of bacteria cohabit with us in our bodies.

In fact, the number of bacteria cells we carry around outnumber our own human cells by some 10 to one. While they only make up about two per cent of our weight, they contribute to about half our body’s waste.

Which is the basis of this research.

A study published this week in the journal Peerput human subjects in a sterile chamber in order to identify their unique mix of microbial emissions. This was done by genetic sequencing bacteria collected from the air.

This wasn’t hard: The fact is, human’s are walking ‘smokestacks’, emitting some one million biological particles every hour.

It turns out this personalised microbial cloud is unique to each of us.

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Subsequent experiments enabled the researchers to determine who had been in a room simply by sampling its ‘odour’.

“We expected that we would be able to detect the human microbiome in the air around a person, but we were surprised to find that we could identify most of the occupants just by sampling their microbial cloud,” University of Oregon postdoctoral researcher James Meadow, the lead author of the study, said in a statement.

There was a catch: The person needed to be in the room for between ninety minutes and four hours before enough ‘microbial emissions’ permeated the atmosphere for the sampler to collect.

Chief among the telltale, but otherwise harmless, bacteria in the ‘clouds’ were Streptococcus (from the mouth), Propionibacterium and Corynebacterium (usually found on skin). Women added common vaginal bacteria to the mix.

The study’s authors suggest ‘microbial cloud’ sampling may have a place in forensics, but note that the technique needs to be considerably refined to overcome the ‘noise’ generated by a crowded or large indoor space, or a dusty place.