Rad Scientist Ep. 8: Body Odor, It’s Not The Pits

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Written and hosted by Margot Wohl

Photo by Jelle Vermeersch

Above: Chris Callewaert is pictured in this undated photo.

Audio

We're sorry. This audio clip is no longer available. A transcript for audioclip 43485 has been made available.

When Chris Callewaert suddenly got body odor years after puberty had hit, he wondered how he could have suddenly become smelly. It timed out pretty well with a one night stand he had with a woman who had a similar smell to what he was noticing in his armpit.

He put two and two together, and came up with a hypothesis that the woman had transferred some new bacteria to his armpits. That's when he decided that he wanted to go from "Mr. Callewaert" to "Dr. Armpit" by studying the microbiome of armpits at Ghent University in Belgium.

Now a joint postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University and UC San Diego, Callewaert's testing out new theories for how to get rid of body odor for good.

To stay up to date with Chris' research or to chat on his forum, go to www.drarmpit.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at @DrArmpit.

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