de March Lab 

The lab research is focused on the link between the chemical structures of odorant molecules and their
interactions with odorant receptors expressed in olfactory neurons. Odorant receptors are the key to understanding the perception of smell as they transform the chemical signals of odorant compounds into electric signals of olfactory sensory neurons, which are in turn interpreted by our brain as odor percept.

As the structures of these proteins have been experimentally determined, we build an optimal protocol to predict their dynamic behavior under the constraints of experimental data we generate. We aim  to understand how they are activated, how they bind ligands, and which features control their odorant
recognition spectrum or their cell surface expression in cell models.
Our long-term aim is to fully understand the link between odorant receptors and odorants at a molecular level as well as between odorant receptors and odor perception.