US EditionSweet Tooth Explained: Researchers Reveal How We Taste Sugar
- On May 7, 2025, Charles Zuker and his team at Columbia University published in Cell their discovery revealing the molecular architecture of the receptor responsible for detecting sweetness.
- This breakthrough builds on Zuker's 2001 discovery of the sweet receptor genes and responds to the need for better understanding of sweetness detection.
- The study shows how a single receptor recognizes many sweet molecules and explains how taste signals label flavors as appetitive or aversive to the brain.
- Co-First author Zhang Juen explained in a news release that revealing the detailed architecture of the sweet receptor provides insight into the molecular processes behind how sweetness is detected and how one receptor can identify a wide variety of sweet compounds.
- This discovery may help design receptor modulators to reduce sugar use in foods, potentially easing obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease prevalence.
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What do researchers studying sweet taste receptors on the tongue say? Why are sweets so delicious and why can't we stop eating them? Scientists may finally have the answer, after for the first time they managed to decipher the structure of sweet taste receptors on the tongue. These receptors are activated every […]
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Leaning Left9Leaning Right4Center10Last UpdatedBias Distribution43% Center
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