Smell is a primary human sense, key to our survival.

Like a super-sensitive human nose, an experimental technology can “smell” and identify the chemical composition of a person’s breath and then diagnose up to 17 potential diseases, according to the scientists who developed it.

These researchers, led by Hossam Haick of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, say their Na-Nose, which uses nanorays to analyze breath, can identify Parkinson’s disease, various cancers, kidney failure, multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease with 86% accuracy.

“I would say our technology in many cases (is) equivalent to the accuracy of the currently available invasive technology,” Haick said, adding that for some diseases, including gastric cancer, Na-Nose has a “much higher” accuracy rate than currently available technologies. And, unlike most screenings, including standard blood tests, breath analysis technology is noninvasive – a benefit most patients would appreciate.

The theory behind the technology is that each of us has a unique chemical “fingerprint.” Each disease also has a particular chemical signature, which can be detected on our breath. The Na-Nose technology, which consists of a sensor chamber with a breathing tube and software, is able to detect this precise chemistry of disease by interpreting the impact on our usual chemical fingerprint.

Keep reading at cnn.com.