News Archives
SCIENTISTS AT SENOMYX, INC. DEMONSTRATE THE FUNCTION OF HUMAN SWEET AND UMAMI TASTE RECEPTORS
La Jolla, CA (April 2, 2002) – Scientists at Senomyx, Inc. (www.senomyx.com) have demonstrated the function of a human receptor that responds to sweeteners and a related human receptor that responds to glutamate, a savory tasting molecule found in a variety of meats, cheeses and vegetables and associated with umami taste. These results are described in a manuscript to be published in the April 2, 2002 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (www.pnas.org) and will be presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences beginning on April 24, 2002 in Sarasota, Florida.
These discoveries, made by Elliot Adler, Ph.D., and Senomyx coworkers Xiaodong Li, Ph.D., Lena Staszewski, and Hong Xu, Ph.D., describe the function of a family of human proteins, which are encoded by three T1R genes. Using cells engineered to express combinations of the human T1R genes, Dr. Adler's team showed that human T1R2 and T1R3 combine to form a receptor that responds to a wide variety of both natural and synthetic sweeteners and that human T1R1 and T1R3 combine to form a receptor that responds to monosodium glutamate (MSG) and other umami taste substances. Characterization of the rodent T1R receptors was recently reported in the March 14, 2002 issue of Nature and the August 10, 2001 issue of Cell from the laboratory of Charles Zuker, Ph.D., an HHMI Investigator and Professor at the University of California, and a Senomyx founder and scientific advisor, and his coworkers at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Adler and his Senomyx coworkers found that the human umami receptor, in contrast with the orthologous rodent receptor, is highly tuned for glutamate compared to other amino acids.
The discoveries on the human sweet and umami receptors have accelerated two major discovery programs at Senomyx. "A key element of our discovery process is the use of human taste and smell receptors in functional assays to screen for novel receptor activators and blockers," said Mark Zoller, Ph.D., Senomyx's Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Research. "The work by Dr. Adler and his team enables Senomyx to initiate high-throughput screening and potentially discover alternatives to MSG, as well as enhancers of sweet and umami tastes. Such taste modulators could improve the healthfulness and taste of foods, and such taste modulators would otherwise be extremely difficult to discover without having the human taste receptors in hand," Dr. Zoller added.
The research results on human sweet and umami taste receptors have also expanded the company's business opportunities. "Senomyx was established to discover novel molecules that modulate taste and smell for application in consumer products. These new discoveries have created two broad new areas for product development collaborations," said Paul A. Grayson, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer, and President.
About Senomyx, Inc.
Senomyx seeks to be the leader in discovering new and improved proprietary flavor and fragrance molecules for use in a wide range of consumer products. Senomyx's integrated technology platform combines an enhanced understanding of the biology of taste and smell with many of the same technologies and advancements that pharmaceutical companies have recently begun using to more efficiently discover new medicines. Senomyx is incorporating receptor biology, combinatorial chemistry, high-throughput screening and bioinformatics into an integrated technology platform designed to enable the rapid, efficient discovery of new and proprietary improved molecules.
back to News Archives