Using artificial intelligence to smell the roses

A pair of researchers at the University of California, Riverside, has used machine learning to understand what a chemical smells like--a research breakthrough with potential applications in the food flavor and fragrance industries. "We now can use artificial intelligence to predict how any chemical is going to smell to humans," said Anandasankar Ray, a professor of molecular, cell and systems biology, and the senior author of the study that appears in iScience. "Chemicals that are toxic or harsh in, say, flavors, cosmetics, or household products can be replaced with natural, softer, and safer chemicals." Humans sense odors when some of their nearly 400 odorant receptors, or ORs, are activated in the nose. Each OR is activated by a unique set of chemicals; together, the large OR family can detect a vast chemical space.