goals : trimethylamine sensors for home body odor and halitosis checks

One aim of MeBO Research and probably amongst the body odor and halitosis community in general is for the best and easiest ways of diagnosis of whatever their problem is. In the case of TMAU, this currently means using the very few labs that test for TMAU.

There are 2 aspects to testing: 1 is the 'gold standard' tests, that will presumably always be done in labs. The other is 'monitoring' testing, which could probably be done in the home. This would be like the 'digital blood pressure checkers' people can nowadays buy very cheaply.

For monitoring TMAU, the product would likely be based on monitoring trimethylamine levels in the urine (perhaps in the breath ?). This would seem to be likely done in either 2 ways :
1 : test strip paper (such as ph paper or diabetes dipstick paper)
2 : electronic sensors such as used in breathalyzers

Amazingly, both such types of TMA monitoring already exist, primarily designed for the fish industry. The TMA test paper idea seemed to be patented a few years ago in Canada but no product was brought to market due to lack of interest.

Probably one major problem is that these companies do not realise there would likely be a bigger than expected 'medical' market for such devices, thinking TMAu to be very rare.

MeBO Research hopes to encourage such devices, although with such a problem the the old adage seems very appropriate : it doesn't matter where the leads/answers come from.

The following 2 papers are about electronic sensors for TMA. It's not known what has become of these ideas, but it would be very useful if such a sensitive digital checker could be bought for under $50.

France 2009 : Trimethylamine biosensor based on pentacene enzymatic organic field effect transistor

Japan 2004 : Trimethylamine biosensor with flavin-containing monooxygenase type 3 (FMO3) for fish-freshness analysis