Max Planck Research Unit for Neurogenetics

The coronavirus does not appear to infect nerve cells in the olfactory epithelium and in the olfactory bulb

Scientists discover anatomical link for the loss of smell in Parkinson’s disease

Mice can sense oxygen levels in the environment using specialized neurons in their noses that are present in the olfactory mucosa

In the mouse a repertoire of ~1100 odorant receptor genes has evolved to detect a very wide variety of chemical structures in the external environment. The team of Peter Mombaerts is pursuing a genetic approach to understand the mechanisms of odorant receptor gene choice and of axonal wiring in the mouse olfactory system. A novel type of chemosensory neurons has been discovered that do not express odorant receptor genes and appear to have a specialized chemosensory function.