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The Monell Chemical Senses Center and A*STAR Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation are about to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to promote academic cooperation and exchange in education and research, with the vision of creating a healthier world by unlocking the mysteries of our senses.

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Over the last four years since the start of the pandemic, the Monell Chemical Senses Center, has developed different iterations of a rapid screening tool for detecting new-onset loss of smell. Since its launch in late 2020, several studies have validated its accuracy in detecting smell dysfunction and value as a tool for testing in large populations of people.

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By teasing apart the therapeutic benefits from the adverse effects of new-generation obesity medications, researchers from the Monell Chemical Senses Center found a population of neurons in the brain that controls food intake without causing nausea in an animal model.

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in 2022 collaborators - patient groups, basic researchers, and clinicians - conducted a survey and listening sessions with patients, caregivers, and family members affected by impaired smell or taste. They asked about their individual perceptions of the effectiveness of treatments, among other topics.

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Strong bitterness is the main reason why people all over the world, especially children, avoid taking their medicines, putting their health, and sometimes, their lives at risk. Now, a group of scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center identified the first temporary, universal taste blocker that works in people.

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The sweet taste receptor, expressed in taste bud cells, conveys sweetness from the mouth when it is activated. Monell researchers delved into how the sweet-taste receptor might be the first stop in a metabolic surveillance system for sugar. They team found that stimulation and inhibition of the receptor demonstrates that it helps regulate glucose metabolism in humans and may have implications for managing such metabolic disorders as diabetes.

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The Monell Chemical Senses Center welcomes Juyun Lim, PhD, as the newest addition to the faculty at Monell, starting in August, 2024. She is currently a Professor of Sensory Science and the Chair of the Graduate Program in the Department of Food Science and Technology at Oregon State University.

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Over 20 scientists from the Monell Chemical Senses Center will present their latest research at the 46th Association for Chemoreception Sciences (AChemS) annual conference, which covers the latest advances in the fields of taste, smell, and related chemical senses.

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The bitter taste of certain drugs is a barrier to taking some medications as prescribed, especially for people who are particularly sensitive to bitter taste. A Monell team found that the diabetes drug rosiglitazone could partially block the bitter taste of some especially bad-tasting medications.

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The overall goal of the team is to discover fundamental rules and mechanisms that govern information storage, namely how memories are made and stored. The teams will be looking for and measuring changes in neural circuitry that correspond to memory formation.

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A new study in Cell Metabolism by a team from the Monell Chemical Senses Center unravels the internal neural wiring of separate fat and sugar craving pathways in a mouse model. However, combining these pathways overly triggers a desire to eat more than usual.

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A research team from the Monell Chemical Senses Center demonstrated, using a novel quantitative analysis, that the neuronal response to odors undergoes some modifications in the nose. Such early processing of olfactory signals is a result of interactions between olfactory receptor neurons and the neighboring trigeminal neurons.

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Registration is open for a visionary conference titled, “Towards Universal Chemosensory Testing.” The Monell Chemical Senses Center, with colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), The Ohio State University, and the University of Florida, organized this conference with the overarching goal to involve multiple stakeholders to develop strategies for implementing routine chemosensory testing – smell, taste, and related senses – across the lifespan as a part of healthcare in the United States.

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A multidisciplinary research group specializing in pediatrics, genetics, and psychophysics, co-led by the Monell Chemical Senses Center, has identified wide variation in the sensory perception of a pediatric formulation of ibuprofen — some that were tied to genetic ancestry, and some that were not.

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A new study published in iScience, by Hong Wang, PhD, an Associate Member at the Monell Chemical Sense Center, and colleagues sheds light on the mechanisms involved in the complex interplay between taste perception and immune function. Their work also highlights the potential of a sequencing tool for investigating epigenetic mechanisms that affect taste-cell gene expression.

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Smell loss became the cardinal symptom of COVID-19 early in the pandemic and has ignited research on how smell and taste function. An international study led by the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research (GCCR) and the Monell Chemical Senses Center has untied taste from smell in people with COVID-19, demonstrating in a large and diverse group of more than 10,000 people that taste, independent of smell, is also greatly impacted by COVID.

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After an international search, the Board of Directors of the Monell Chemical Senses Center announces that Benjamin P.C. Smith, PhD, Director of the Singapore Future Ready Food Safety Hub, will be the next Monell Director and President.

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The Monell Chemical Senses Center, with colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital, The Ohio State University, and University of Florida, has received funding from the NIH Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders to organize a visionary conference titled, “Towards Universal Chemosensory Testing.” The overarching goal is to involve multiple stakeholders to develop strategies for implementing routine chemosensory testing - smell, taste, and related senses - across the lifespan as a part of US healthcare.

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The smell test SCENTinel 1.1 can successfully discriminate between different types of smell disorders. The paper, published in Chemical Senses, also provides evidence that it is the only direct olfactory test to rapidly identify parosmia, the distorted perception of odors.