Dr Johannes Reisert

Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA USA

Smells surround us constantly and guide our choices of food and alert us to dangers. The perception of odors begins with the activation of olfactory receptor neurons in the nasal cavity. Thus, the activity of these neurons depends on the external environment that carries odorants in the inhaled air, but might also be altered by the internal, health or metabolic, state of the animal. This seminar will address how olfactory receptor neurons transduce odorants to be perceived and how diabetes alters their function.

Biography

Johannes Reisert studied physics as an undergraduate in Germany and did his PhD and Postdocs in the UK, Germany and the USA, in labs that actually all studied phototransduction and vision, leaving him to delve into the world of odour and olfactory perception. Now based at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, his lab is focusing on the physiology of olfactory receptor neurons, how they talk and connect to the brain and how they shape our odorous life in health and disease.