“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” — Carl Jung
September 2025: The structure of taste
Bridging molecular structures and machine learning with sensory studies is exactly what Dr. Masha Niv from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is passionate to work on. Their team works on how different molecules in food and drugs activate G-protein coupled receptors to elicit distinct tastes such as bitter and sweet.
October 2025: The smell of health
Luis Saraiva, Ph.D. leads a multidisciplinary research program at Sidra Medicine in Doha. His work is at the intersection of genetics, sensory neuroscience, and metabolism to understand how your diet and physical state literally rewire your sense of smell. Essentially, he studies how specific genetic switches and nutritional inputs change what you perceive and how your body reacts to it. His goal is to advance fundamental science and translate these profound findings into new ways to diagnose and treat rare genetic diseases.