INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO AGING AND CHEMOSENSORY SYSTEMS

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Support is requested to enhance the International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste (ISOT) to be held in San Diego, CA, July 7-12 1997 as it joins the Association for Chemoreception Sciences Annual Meeting. An international symposium on Olfaction and taste is held every 3-4 years in a different location in the world. The last ISOT to be held in the U.S. was in 1986. The nation~s scientists, clinicians and industrial researchers in aging of the senses of olfaction and taste regard the American meeting as the nation~s major forum for dissemination of their research findings. The international meeting is the premier meeting for presentation of research in the field. Information presented at this meeting propagates rapidly and widely to the world-wide chemosensory community. Aging is associated with significant impairment in chemosensory function. Patients with Alzheimer~s disease exhibit particularly profound vulnerability of the olfactory system to the degenerative processes of the disease. This application proposes to enhance the joint meeting by inviting experts from outside the chemical senses who are experts in the area of aging, new technologies relevant to the study of aging, and in aging aspects of chemosensory function to participate in symposia which bring issues of aging to the forefront. These experts will advance the scientific objectives of the meeting by 1) encouraging the use of innovative technology, including cellular and molecular biological techniques and neuroimaging to be applied to the problem of aging of chemosensory systems, 2) presenting advances in research in other sensory modalities in order to enhance the potential for similar advances in the chemical senses, 3) updating chemosensory scientists with research in aging of chemosensory systems in order to stimulate new, innovative research directed at aging issues, and 4) fostering education in aging of the chemical senses. The proposed enhancement will produce better understanding of age-associated chemosensory impairment and stimulate new, innovative research into its underlying mechanisms.