Monell Newsletter: Benefiting Global Health
- A New Smell Defender?. New research suggests that mysterious sensory cells in the olfactory epithelium called microvillous cells may help protect our sense of smell. These cells act as sentinels, detecting harmful intruders and initiating a defensive response.
- Busting Bitter, Saving Lives. In collaboration with Discovery BioMed, we recently received NIH funding for an exciting project to advance human health. Better bitter taste blockers can improve acceptance of nutritious plant-based foods and increase patient willingness to take life-saving oral medicines.
- Sickness Odors Spread. Odors provide cues about many aspects of personal identity, including health status. A recent study revealed that bodily odors associated with sickness can cause biological changes in healthy animals, potentially to minimize the infection’s spread.
- Marco Tizzano Named Morley Kare Fellow. Physiologist Marco Tizzano is the 2018-2020 Morley R. Kare Fellow. Tizzano’s research increases understanding of chemosensory sentinel cells involved in respiratory protective reflexes and immune responses.
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