Sniffing for success

Abstract

For all its interest in olfaction, Senomyx may get its start in modifying taste. The simplest of all its proposed projects involves blocking the response of bitter taste receptors to products such as processed foods, nutraceuticals, antibiotics and artificial sweeteners. The number of bitter taste receptors appears to be manageable (perhaps 20–40), and any given bitter chemical may target only one receptor. “It’s more like a classical target,” says Zoller. In contrast, devising something new — say a tofu with meat flavor — involves creating new volatile and non-volatile components, and “that’s a really difficult problem.”Projects for the future include novel sweeteners (based on proposed sweet receptors isolated by Zuker and Ryba), and modifiers of possible receptors for salt and umami (the flavor of monosodium glutamate). Senomyx is interested in doing further basic biology in these areas, including expression cloning of any receptors that may still be out there. “Since a lot of the work is done by homology and informatics, there is a lot that you can miss,” says Zoller.The motivationThe meaning and goal and purpose of his life had a higher destiny: nothing less than to revolutionize the odiferous world.As a refugee from pharmaceutical science, Zoller has certainly thought about the contrast between his old and new goals. “When I tell nonscientists what I’m doing everybody thinks it is unbelievably cool,” he says. “When I tell scientists they think, ‘You’re not curing osteoporosis or cancer’.”The new science “is very much targeted to enhancing the enjoyment of life,” says Stryer. “It relates to day-to-day living rather than the amelioration of suffering.” More serious applications may come, such as the modification of plant smells to repel insect predators. But with the current fuss over genetically modified foods “we’re not even going down that road,” says Grayson. “We’ll revolutionize one industry at a time.”