“Taste, Smell, and COVID-19” – a lecture by a UG visiting professor Danielle Reed from USA

We are inviting you to a lecture by prof. Danielle Reed from the USA, who is a guest at the Faculty of Biology. The lecture will be held in the auditorium of the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, UG and MUG on June 8 at 14:00.

Prof. Reed has come to the University of Gdansk under the programme UG Visiting Professors in response to the invitation of dr Emilia Leszkowicz from the Department of Animal and Human Physiology.

Our sense of taste and smell are often taken for granted but they are important sensory systems that not only help us stay safe but also appreciate and enjoy life. Taste and smell loss occurs as a natural process of aging but can also be symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, or can arise because of cancer treatments. Most recently, taste and smell loss is a cardinal feature of some of the SARS-CoV2 variants that cause COVID-19. Prof. Danielle Reed will explore that subject during her lecture, and the audience will have a chance to test their own sense of taste.

Prof. Danielle Reed is an expert on the biology of taste and smell and person-to-person differences in perception that arise from genetic variation in receptor genes. Prof. Reed is the Associate Director of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia in the USA, which is a world leader in smell and taste research. Danielle Reed is also on the leadership team of the Global Consortium of Chemosensory Research, which brings together people who conduct studies all over the world to assess relationships between respiratory illnesses (e.g. COVID-19) and their effects on smell and taste, and she is the President of the Association of Chemoreception Sciences, an international organization of scientists who study taste and smell.