Talking Tongues with Steve Roper and Nirupa Chaudhari

Professors Steve Roper and Nirupa Chaudhari at the University of Miami School of Medicine are pioneers in research on taste buds and the neurobiology of taste. The sense of taste evolved in ways that maximized the consumption of high energy foods while minimizing the consumption of potentially toxic chemicals in plants. Foods contain chemicals that interact with certain receptor proteins on the surface of electrically excitable cells in the taste buds of the tongue. Three different taste receptors have been identified and the ways in which they excite taste cells are known. Acting on a single type of receptor or multiple receptors tastes are categorized as bitter, sweet, sour, salty and umami. By mechanisms that remain to be established, information coming into the brain’s sensory cortex from taste receptors is combined with information from olfactory receptors in the nose to generate the perception of flavors. Remarkably, researchers have discovered that the receptors for bitter and sweet tasting chemicals are located not only in taste bud cells but also in cells throughout the body and brain.

Links:

Roper Lab webpage:

https://umiamihealth.org/sylvester-comprehensive-cancer-center/research/labs/roper-lab

Chaudhari Lab webpage:

https://med.miami.edu/en/labs/chaudhari-lab

Review articles on the neurobiology of taste:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5958546/pdf/nihms942554.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6462759/pdf/bjz013.pdf

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/epdf/10.1152/physrev.00012.2022

Neuroscience text book:

https://www.amazon.com/Neuroscience-Dale-Purves/dp/1605353809