The sense of smell is an early warning system for the detection of environmental hazards such as spoiled food, natural gas leaks, smoke, or airborne pollution. Smells also play an important role in quality of life, imparting the flavor of foods and beverages. The long- term objective of this proposal is to understand the nature of odor coding at the receptor level. Currently, little is known about how changes in the receptor activation pattern alter olfactory perception. In the research proposed here, we use next-generation sequencing techniques, heterologous expression systems, and human psychophysics to understand the links between receptor genotype, receptor function and olfactory perception. Learning the rules for transforming receptor activity into perception will advance our understanding of odor coding.
The inability to smell environmental hazards or foods can affect both health and quality of life. Establishing a link between receptors and ligands will allo for the development of receptor agonists and antagonists to be used in direct therapeutic interventions.
| Trimmer, Casey; Mainland, Joel D (2017) Simplifying the Odor Landscape. Chem Senses 42:177-179 |
| Keller, Andreas; Gerkin, Richard C; Guan, Yuanfang et al. (2017) Predicting human olfactory perception from chemical features of odor molecules. Science 355:820-826 |
| Boesveldt, Sanne; Postma, Elbrich M; Boak, Duncan et al. (2017) Anosmia-A Clinical Review. Chem Senses 42:513-523 |
| Ibarra-Soria, Ximena; Nakahara, Thiago S; Lilue, Jingtao et al. (2017) Variation in olfactory neuron repertoires is genetically controlled and environmentally modulated. Elife 6: |
| Mainland, Joel D; Li, Yun R; Zhou, Ting et al. (2015) Human olfactory receptor responses to odorants. Sci Data 2:150002 |
| Trimmer, Casey; Snyder, Lindsey L; Mainland, Joel D (2014) High-throughput analysis of mammalian olfactory receptors: measurement of receptor activation via luciferase activity. J Vis Exp : |
| Mainland, Joel D; Keller, Andreas; Li, Yun R et al. (2014) The missense of smell: functional variability in the human odorant receptor repertoire. Nat Neurosci 17:114-20 |
| Mainland, Joel D; Lundström, Johan N; Reisert, Johannes et al. (2014) From molecule to mind: an integrative perspective on odor intensity. Trends Neurosci 37:443-54 |
| Mainland, Joel D; Willer, Jason R; Matsunami, Hiroaki et al. (2013) Next-generation sequencing of the human olfactory receptors. Methods Mol Biol 1003:133-47 |
