Researchers discover new method to create tailored odors and fragrances with help of machine learning

One of the most basic senses of animal species is the sense of smell. It is essential for finding food, recognising attractiveness, and detecting danger. Humans detect odorants using olfactory receptors found in olfactory nerve cells. These odorant sensory impressions on nerve cells are linked to their molecular and physicochemical properties. This enables scents to be tailored to generate the desired odour impression. Current approaches can only predict olfactory perceptions based on odorant physicochemical properties. However, that approach cannot forecast sensing data, which is required for producing odours. The findings of the study were published in the journal PLoS One.