Stinky Science
By William Wells
Somehow the brain classifies the thousands of smells we encounter every day. Finding out how this works may bring biologists not only intellectual satisfaction, but also money.
"There reigned in the cities a stench barely conceivable to us modern men and women. The streets stank of manure, the courtyards of urine, the stairwells of moldering wood and rat droppings, the kitchens of spoiled cabbage and mutton fat."*
|
Aldehydes are simple organic compounds that also happen to be smelly. Eleven-carbon aldehydes smell like citrus. Lop off one carbon atom and you have a soapy, waxy smell. Down around six carbons you get the overwhelming sensation of freshly mowed grass.
Somehow the nose can differentiate these aldehydes, and it doesn’t stop there. The caraway smell of (+)-carvone is distinct from the spearmint smell of (-)-carvone, its mirror image. The orange, rose-like smell of octanol contrasts with the rancid, sweaty odor of its chemical relative octanoic acid. Even relative dose matters. Indoles have a pleasant floral scent when diluted, but, according to Paul Grayson, a concentrated hit "makes cat urine smell pretty good."
As CEO of Senomyx, Inc. (La Jolla, Calif.), Grayson hopes to make sense of this vast and confusing odiferous world. Senomyx is unusual in the world of biotechs because it is focussing not on miracle medical cures, but on improving consumer products. Bringing logic to smelly science could save Calvin Klein millions of dollars if perfumes could be made with fewer or cheaper ingredients. "We’ve put together big pharma’s tools," says Grayson, "to come up with our discovery engine for smell and taste."
*Quotations are from "Perfume : the story of a murderer" © 1986 Patrick Süskind, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
|
Stinky Science 
Biotech Applied Index
