POTION Project holds key Lisbon Meeting, 2019

A highly energising mid-term meeting was held on 22nd-23rd October in Lisbon, Portugal, where the POTION project partners consolidated and further developed their successful collaboration. Hosted under the aegis of project partner Instituto Universitário (ISPA), POTION work package leaders briefed all participants on updates and developments in this innovative initiative. POTION is studying how human body odours transfer emotions and shape social behaviour, and this is expected to lead to an olfactory-based technology that will analyse the chemical composition of the body odours as well as develop instruments to disperse artificially produced body odours. The meeting enabled all participants to gain further insight into the research and developmental issues surrounding sample collection and were given an overview of the design and development of the olfactometer system prototype. Implementation of chemical analytical methods and instrumentation were also explored and discussed as well as computational and evaluative tools and processes. The meeting concluded with a dynamic round table event in which panellists focused on the experimental protocol, the best equipment to be used and pilot studies. Project Coordinator, Enzo Pasquale Scilingo, from the University of Pisa, commented: “The meeting went great; we clarified many points. We can now progress on a better footing and we will keep working together as a huge team all around Europe! ”