Loss of smell is thought to be a precursor to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's. Yet this condition is poorly understood.
But it was just announced on September 23, 2015 that the National Science Foundation has awarded Arizona State University and three partner institutions a 3-year, $3.6 million grant to study how a healthy brain creates memories of odors and what happens when affected by disease.
This grant is one of three provided nationally, and ASU will be partnered with Harvard University, Salk Institute for Biological Studies and California Institute of Technology.
According to Brian Smith, professor and neuroscientist with the ASU School of Life Sciences, "The opportunity . . . to advance an understanding of how the brain represents odors. Reaching this understanding will have a broad impact in biomedicine and agriculture, as well as engineering applications."
While previous studies used synthetic odors, this research will use natural odors from honey bees and fruit flies to better understand how natural odors occur and how an organism must detect them against complex backgrounds. It hopes to link the physical structure of an odor environment to how the brain works, and could reveal new information about the neurological circuits behind our sense of smell.
This research not only has great potential in understanding and preventing these destructive cognitive disorders, it may also assist in the engineering of devices that can sniff out cancer.
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