It’s clear that genes, receptors and neurons all play a role in detecting odors. But much of how we make sense of what we sniff remains mysterious. A neuroscientist explains. By Daniela Hirschfeld / ...

Humans have about 400 odorant receptors (ORs), but scientists have had trouble finding ligands that match up with most of these ORs in lab settings—leaving them with a murky understanding of how ...

The human olfactory system discriminates between thousands of odours by interacting specifically with olfactory receptors on sensory neurons. Each receptor can detect several odorants at different ...

Tsukuba, Japan—Animals, including humans, rely on their sense of smell to locate food, avoid predators, and communicate. This sensory ability depends on specialized receptor proteins. In vertebrates, ...

Olfactory receptors (ORs) are key to how animals perceive their surroundings, guiding behaviors like foraging, mating, and avoiding danger. In chordates, the genes encoding these receptors are ...

For the first time, researchers have determined how a human olfactory receptor captures an airborne scent molecule, the pivotal chemical event that triggers our sense of smell. Whether it evokes roses ...

A research team led by scientists at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute used techniques including single cell genomics, to describe a previously undetected RNA-mediated mechanism in mice that could ...

In the middle of dinner, the faint whiff of something burning in the kitchen might go unnoticed by most people, but others may catch the smell instantly. Their noses are a little sharper, tuned to ...