Dr. Ayse Sena Mutlu, a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor’s Huffington Center On Aging, had an intriguing question.
Dr. Ayse Sena Mutlu, a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor’s Huffington Center On Aging, had an intriguing question. Is it possible to change the body’s fat storage without changing eating habits?
Working with the laboratory worm C. elegans, Mutlu and her colleagues conducted a broad screen to investigate whether neurons can actively send signals that, without affecting feeding habits, could alter lipid metabolism.
“When we found a connection with the sense of smell, we were very surprised. We expected a link with taste or related to eating,” said Mutlu, who works in the laboratory of Dr. Meng Wang, professor of molecular and human genetics, a member of the Huffington Center On Aging and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Baylor.
How scents can affect fat storage
The connection between the sense of smell and fat metabolism is not new, but the underlying mechanisms are still not clear. Olfactory perception is complex and highly regulated, explained Mutlu.
Read more at Baylor College of Medicine
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