By isolating these specific odors, scientists have give us the ability to better articulate the specific ways in which other people are disgusting to us (“Frank smells like rotting fruit because of his butryic acid problem”), but no clear way to solve the problem. The issue remains that odors are intensely complicated. The arise from the compounds, sure but also from the way compounds and bacteria react to heat and sweat and the presence of substances secreted by human glands. Body odor is a cocktail and the ability to name some of the ingredients does not a recipe, make less a chaser, make.

— Scientists at Northumbria University are studying the molecules that make our clothes smell, and how well those molecules survive washing at different temperatures. Read more at Scientists Isolate Body Odor's Specific Smells One Volatile Compound at a Time at Inverse.