EAST LANSING, Mich. (WILX) -Michigan State University researchers are one step closer to detecting cancer early in humans.

They’re using locusts.

“I did not realize that insects could be used for something like this,” said graduate student Autumn Mclane-Svoboda.

Locusts are insects about the size of your finger, and they have some incredible abilities.

“These insects are actually amazing, just like dogs. They have very similar ability to identify chemicals,” said Debajit Saha, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering.

That skill is being used to detect cancer.

“We basically puffed the odor of the cancer cells over the antenna of the locust while recording from their brain and we saw how their brain activity changes to that odor and we use that to classify whether or not there

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