Description of Research Expertise

Research Interests

Develop a predictive model relating molecular structure and olfactory perception using a combined psychophysical and molecular approach.

Keywords

olfactory receptor, psychophysics, coding, cell culture, human

Research Details

A fundamental problem in neuroscience is mapping the physical properties of a stimulus to perceptual characteristics. In vision, wavelength translates into color; in audition, frequency translates into pitch. By contrast, the mapping from chemical structure to olfactory percept is unknown. In other words, there is not a scientist or perfumer in the world who can view a novel molecular structure and predict how it will smell. My research goal is to develop a predictive model relating molecular structure and olfactory perception using a combined psychophysical and molecular approach.