Monell Chemical Senses Center

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Monell Chemical Senses Center
Monell Chemical Senses Center.jpg
Entrance to the Monell Chemical Senses Center
Established1968
Director Robert Margolskee
Address3500 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Location
Website monell.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The Monell Chemical Senses Center is a non-profit independent scientific institute located at the University City Science Center campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Monell conducts and publishes interdisciplinary basic research on taste, smell, and chemesthesis.

Contents

History

Monell was founded in 1968. The center's mission is to advance knowledge of the mechanisms and functions of the chemical senses. Knowledge gained from Monell’s research is relevant to issues related to public health, national health policy, and quality of life, including studies of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, pediatric health, occupational safety, environmental interactions, and national defense. [1]

Monell has a staff of more than 50 scientists and provides research opportunities for local high school and undergraduate students. Situated in Philadelphia’s University City Science Center, the center occupies two buildings with a total of 80,000 square feet (7,400 m2). Monell is operated as a non-profit organization and receives funding from government grants, primarily from the National Institutes of Health through the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, as well as from private foundations and unrestricted corporate gifts. [1]

Research

Selected achievements

Social decisions and olfactory cues in children

In 2016, Monell announced that it had completed research that found toddlers use sensory information to make social decisions. The study included 140 children between the ages of three and eleven years old. Each child was exposed for three seconds to odors from fish, rose, or a placebo. The children were then immediately shown pictures of the same person with a disgusted face and a happy face and asked to choose one. [15]

The children then were asked about how pleasant the odor was. Children five and under generally chose the happy face regardless of the odor they were presented with. Starting around age five, children generally selected faces based on the pleasantness of the odor. For example, being exposed to the fish odor boosted their likelihood of choosing the disgusted face. [15]

Food

In 2019, Monell published a paper in the journal Physiology & Behavior that included an analysis of about 400,000 food reviews posted on Amazon. Monell scientists concluded that most common complaint about food items is that they were too sweet. They also found that saltiness was almost never mentioned. The researchers suggested that differences in the perception of food tastes were due to genetics. They used "big data" methods to conduct their analysis of the reviews. [16]

Publications

Monell publishes a quarterly electronic newsletter dedicated to news about the center's activities and the latest information on relevant science. [1]

Notable members

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Umami</span> One of the five basic tastes

Umami, or savoriness, is one of the five basic tastes. It is characteristic of broths and cooked meats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olfactory receptor neuron</span> Transduction nerve cell within the olfactory system

An olfactory receptor neuron (ORN), also called an olfactory sensory neuron (OSN), is a sensory neuron within the olfactory system.

The glycemic load (GL) of food is a number that estimates how much the food will raise a person's blood glucose level after it is eaten. One unit of glycemic load approximates the effect of eating one gram of glucose. Glycemic load accounts for how much carbohydrate is in the food and how much each gram of carbohydrate in the food raises blood glucose levels. Glycemic load is based on the glycemic index (GI), and is calculated by multiplying the weight of available carbohydrate in the food (in grams) by the food's glycemic index, and then dividing by 100.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Androstenone</span> Chemical compound

Androstenone (5α-androst-16-en-3-one) is a 16-androstene class steroidal pheromone. It is found in boar's saliva, celery cytoplasm, and truffle fungus. Androstenone was the first mammalian pheromone to be identified. It is found in high concentrations in the saliva of male pigs, and, when inhaled by a female pig that is in heat, results in the female assuming the mating stance. Androstenone is the active ingredient in 'Boarmate', a commercial product made by DuPont sold to pig farmers to test sows for timing of artificial insemination.

A supertaster is a person whose sense of taste for certain flavors and foods is of far more sensitive than the average person having an elevated taste response. The term originated with experimental psychologist Linda Bartoshuk and is not the result of response bias or a scaling artifact but appears to have an anatomical or biological basis.

Aftertaste is the taste intensity of a food or beverage that is perceived immediately after that food or beverage is removed from the mouth. The aftertastes of different foods and beverages can vary by intensity and over time, but the unifying feature of aftertaste is that it is perceived after a food or beverage is either swallowed or spat out. The neurobiological mechanisms of taste signal transduction from the taste receptors in the mouth to the brain have not yet been fully understood. However, the primary taste processing area located in the insula has been observed to be involved in aftertaste perception.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oleocanthal</span> Chemical compound

Oleocanthal is a phenylethanoid, or a type of natural phenolic compound found in extra-virgin olive oil. It appears to be responsible for the burning sensation that occurs in the back of the throat when consuming such oil. Oleocanthal is a tyrosol ester and its chemical structure is related to oleuropein, also found in olive oil.

Chemesthesis is the detection of potentially harmful chemicals by the skin and mucous membranes. Chemesthetic sensations arise when chemical compounds activate receptors associated with other senses that mediate pain, touch, and thermal perception. These chemical-induced reactions do not fit into the traditional sense categories of taste and smell.

Trimethylamine <i>N</i>-oxide Chemical compound

Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is an organic compound with the formula (CH3)3NO. It is in the class of amine oxides. Although the anhydrous compound is known, trimethylamine N-oxide is usually encountered as the dihydrate. Both the anhydrous and hydrated materials are white, water-soluble solids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TAS2R38</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Taste receptor 2 member 38 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the TAS2R38 gene. TAS2R38 is a bitter taste receptor; varying genotypes of TAS2R38 influence the ability to taste both 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) and phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). Though it has often been proposed that varying taste receptor genotypes could influence tasting ability, TAS2R38 is one of the few taste receptors shown to have this function.

Danielle Renee Reed is an American geneticist employed at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is most notable for her papers regarding genetic variation in taste and obesity in mice and humans.

Dr. Gary K. Beauchamp was the director and president of the Monell Chemical Senses Center from August 1990 to September 2014.

Dr. Alexander Bachmanov studied veterinary medicine at the Saint Petersburg Veterinary Institute, Russia (1977-1982), received his Ph.D. in biological sciences from the Pavlov Institute of Physiology in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1990. He completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Physiological Laboratory at Cambridge University in 1993 and at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States from 1994 to 1997. He later joined Monnell's faculty.

George Preti was an analytical organic chemist who worked at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For more than four decades, his research focused on the nature, origin, and functional significance of human odors. Dr. Preti's laboratory has identified characteristic underarm odorants, and his later studies centered upon a bioassay-guided approach to the identification of human pheromones, odors diagnostic of human disease, human malodor identification and suppression and examining the “odor-print” of humans.

Dr. Morley Richard Kare (1922–1990) was a physiologist and biologist.

Dr. Michael G. Tordoff is a psychobiologist working at the Monell Chemical Senses Center. His research deals with the genetics and physiology of taste and nutrition. His early work addressed (a) how and what animals learn about the value of their food, (b) how artificial sweeteners influence appetite and body weight, (c) how salt intake is regulated, and (d) how dietary calcium influences salt intake. Recently, he has been investigating calcium taste and appetite. He is the primary proponent of the notion that calcium is a basic taste, equivalent to sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.

Julie Mennella is a biopsychologist specializing in the development of food and flavor preferences in humans and the effects of alcohol and tobacco on women's health and infant development. She currently works at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, PA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Odor</span> Volatile chemical compounds perceived by the sense of smell

An odor or odour is caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds that are generally found in low concentrations that humans and many animals can perceive via their sense of smell. An odor is also called a "smell" or a "scent", which can refer to either an unpleasant or a pleasant odor.

Old person smell is the characteristic odor of elderly humans. Like many other animal species, human odor undergoes distinct stages based on chemical changes initiated through the aging process. Research suggests that this enables humans to determine the suitability of potential partners based on age, in addition to other factors.

Neurogastronomy is the study of flavor perception and the ways it affects cognition and memory. This interdisciplinary field is influenced by the psychology and neuroscience of sensation, learning, satiety, and decision making. Areas of interest include how olfaction contributes to flavor, food addiction and obesity, taste preferences, and the linguistics of communicating and identifying flavor. The term neurogastronomy was coined by neuroscientist Gordon M. Shepherd.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Monell Chemical Senses Center". National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. 8 April 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2019. The Monell Chemical Senses Center (Monell) is the world's only nonprofit basic research institute devoted to the study of taste, smell, and chemical irritation.
  2. Morris, James A.; Martenson, Russell; Deibler, Gladys; Cagan, Robert H. (1973-01-25). "Characterization of Monellin, a Protein That Tastes Sweet". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 248 (2): 534–539. doi: 10.1016/S0021-9258(19)44407-4 . PMID   4684691.
  3. 1 2 Yamazaki K., Beauchamp G. K., Singer A. G., Bard J., Boyse E. A. (1999). "Odortypes: Their origin and composition". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 96 (4): 1522–1525. Bibcode:1999PNAS...96.1522Y. doi: 10.1073/pnas.96.4.1522 . PMC   15502 . PMID   9990056.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. Mennella, J. A. (2007). The chemical senses and the development of flavor preferences in humans. In: Hartmann, P. E. and Hale, T., Textbook on Human Lactation. Hale Publishing, Texas, pp 403 - 414.
  5. Friedman M. I. (1997). "An energy sensor for control of energy intake". Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 56 (1A): 41–50. doi: 10.1079/pns19970008 . PMID   9168519.
  6. Green B. G., Shaffer G. S., Gilmore M. M. (1993). "Derivation and evaluation of a semantic scale of oral sensation magnitude with apparent ratio properties". Chemical Senses. 18 (6): 683–702. doi:10.1093/chemse/18.6.683.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. Rawson N. E., Gomez G., Cowart B. J., Brand J., Lowry L. D., Pribitkin E. A., Restrepo D. (1997). "Selectivity and response characteristics of human olfactory neurons". Journal of Neurophysiology. 77 (3): 1606–1613. doi:10.1152/jn.1997.77.3.1606. PMID   9084623.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. Bachmanov A. A., Li X., Reed D. R., Ohmen J. D., Li S., Chen Z., Tordoff M. G., de Jong P. J., Wu C., West D. B., Chatterjee A., Ross D. A., Beauchamp G. K. (2001). "Positional cloning of the mouse saccharin preference (Sac) locus". Chemical Senses. 26 (7): 925–933. doi:10.1093/chemse/26.7.925. PMC   3644801 . PMID   11555487.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. Clark L., Mason J. R. (1992). "Nonlethal repellents: The development of cost-effective, practical solutions to agricultural and industrial problems". Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference. 15: 115–129.
  10. Beauchamp G. K., Bertino M., Burke D., Engelman K. (1991). "Experimental sodium depletion and salt taste in normal human volunteers". American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 51 (5): 881–889. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/51.5.881 . PMID   2185626.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. Bertino M., Beauchamp G. K., Engelman K. (1982). "Long-term reduction in dietary sodium alters the taste of salt". American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 36 (6): 1134–1144. doi:10.1093/ajcn/36.6.1134. PMID   7148734.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. Breslin P. A. S., Spector A. C. (2009). "Mammalian taste perception". Current Biology. 18 (4): R148–R155. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2007.12.017 . PMID   18302913.
  13. Chen Q. Y., Alarcon S., Tharp A., Ahmed O. M., Estrella N. L., Greene T. A., Rucker J., Breslin P. A. S. (2009). "Perceptual variation in umami taste and polymorphisms in TAS1R taste receptor genes". American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 90 (3): 770S–779S. doi:10.3945/ajcn.2009.27462n. PMC   3136006 . PMID   19587085.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. Beauchamp G. K., Keast R. S. J., Morel D. Lin J., Pika J., Han Q., Lee C-H, Smith A. B., III, Breslin P. A. S. (2005). "Ibuprofen-like activity in extra-virgin olive oil". Nature. 437 (7055): 45–46. doi:10.1038/437045a. PMID   16136122. S2CID   205033514.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. 1 2 "With eyes or noses? How young children use sensory cues to make social decisions". PsyPost. United States. 19 December 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  16. Staff writer (24 June 2019). "Big data says food is too sweet". ScienceDaily.
  17. "Morley R. Kare Fellowship". Monell Chemical Senses Center. Retrieved 2023-04-07.
  18. "IFF Contributes $500K to Monell Center". HAPPI. Retrieved 2022-06-24.

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