BioPaws Detection Projects
POTS - Postural Orthostatic Tachychardia Syndrome
BioPaws Detection is exploring whether trained detection dogs can identify consistent scent‑based chemical changes associated with POTS episodes. Many people with POTS report that their dog behaves differently before they feel faint, shaky, or unwell. These natural behaviours suggest that dogs may be detecting subtle physiological changes: shifts in heart rate, blood pressure, adrenaline, temperature regulation, or biochemical scent markers released during autonomic instability.
Because POTS symptoms fluctuate and can be difficult to capture during short clinical appointments, diagnosis is often delayed. People may be misdiagnosed with anxiety, panic attacks, or generalised tachycardia, or they may receive incomplete management plans while waiting for formal testing. These delays can be stressful, costly, and emotionally exhausting.
Early work with chief detection dog Evie has already shown that it may be possible for a trained dog to recognise POTS‑related scent changes across multiple individuals. While these observations are not scientific evidence on their own, they provide an encouraging foundation for structured research. They suggest that POTS may produce a generalised scent profile that dogs can detect, rather than a scent signature unique to one person. This insight is important: if POTS does produce a consistent, detectable chemical pattern, it opens the door to developing a generalised detection model, one that could support faster, more accessible diagnostic pathways for many people.
POTS detection dogs will not subtitute current diagnositcs, but rather add another layer of insight that may help shorten diagnostic delays and improve accessibility for people whose symptoms are unpredictable.
At BioPaws Detection we aim to
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determine whether POTS produces a measurable, repeatable scent profile
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understand how scent changes relate to symptom spikes
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explore whether dogs can detect these changes earlier than a person feels them
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assess whether scent‑based detection could complement existing diagnostic tools
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reduce the stress and uncertainty associated with long diagnostic journeys
If successful, BioPaws Detection Dogs could help clinicians access additional information, support earlier investigation, and make the diagnostic process less overwhelming for individuals living with POTS.
We are currently developing a structured POTS Detection Study and building partnerships with clinicians, researchers, and community members who want to be part of this work.
Cancer
At BioPaws Detection we aim to harness the power of the dog’s nose to train medical detection dogs with high specificity to identify disease for diagnostic use, and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of medical detection dogs for cancer detection and early identification in Australia, and operationalise national use of detection dogs for diagnosis where they outperform current methods.
We are currently in the process of developing a Cancer Detection Pilot. To operationalise, we are raising funds to set up a mobile certified PC2 lab to facilitate secure, rapid sample analysis by our dogs. Call us for options. We are also actively recruiting clinicians to collaborate with us.
If you are a clinician interested in exploring the utility of detection dogs as a diagnostic tool (or you want to convince your oncologist) please contact us!
Neurodegenerative conditions
In recent years, the discovery that Parkinson's Disease (PD) has a “scent signature” which might be present before current instruments can detect clinical signs could revolutionise the diagnosis of PD.
The idea that Parkinson’s disease (PD) altered patients body odour was brought forward by a Scottish woman named Joy Milne, gifted with a genetic condition called hereditary hyperosmia, which gives her an extremely sensitive sense of smell. Joy claimed she could smell her husband’s odour had changed before he was diagnosed with PD. She also found the same smell was present in other PD patients. Joy Milne made headlines when, in collaboration with a group of UK researchers, it was demonstrated that she could diagnose PD based on a person’s odour from collecting sebum samples.
Combined with the power of a dog's nose, this revelation opens the pathway for new early detection tests. At BioPaws Detection we aim to train dogs to conduct routine screening for PD, to support a faster and complementary diagnostic pathway for PD.
If PD has a scent signature, so could other neurodegenerative disorders, like Alzheimer’s. Research at BioPaws Detection aims to investigate whether dogs can identify a scent signature in other neurodegenerative disorders and further support faster and more accessible screening and early diagnosis.
If you are a clinician interested in exploring the utility of detection dogs as a diagnostic tool please contact us!
Canine Cancers
Medicine across species boundaries: Dogs helping dogs
The power of early diagnosis and rapid, non-invasive tests does not stop at human medicine. The ability of dogs to detect cancer in humans opens further possibilities to use canine scent detection of malignancies in different species, in particular companion animals like dogs.
If you are suffering the loss of a companion animal due to cancer, please consult a grief counsellor.