In a controlled environment, neurons with enhanced olfactory receptors are cultured on a microelectrode array. While media is flowed through via a peristaltic pump, certain olfactants are injected. When the neurons detect these olfactants, they produce an electrical signal, which is then transferred to a computer for interpretation.
After conducting multiple trials, it was shown that there was no significant increase in voltage reading the olfactant was introduced into the closed system. This may have been because the plasmid is not being expressed sufficiently, or that 24 hours after transfection was not the optimal time to conduct trials. There was also no reference electrode, which could have altered the computers interpretation of the voltage data
