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Switch and Sniff
10 November 2016

Switch and Sniff

Take a good sniff of the air around you. What can you smell? Maybe some fresh coffee or baking cookies. Perhaps stale carpet, or someone who needs a good wash. Whatever it is, you can only smell it thanks to your olfactory epithelium – a thin sheet of cells in the back of your nose that captures smelly molecules in the air and converts them into information about the scents you encounter. This microscope image shows the developing brain of a mouse embryo, just over halfway through development. Cells that will become olfactory receptor neurons – nerve cells specialised for smelling – are highlighted in green around the little pocket in the top left of the picture. Scientists have found that a cluster of molecules known as SWI/SNF (pronounced ‘switch sniff’) are vital for the growth of nerve cells as the olfactory epithelium develops. So without SWI/SNF, you can’t sniff anything at all.

Written by Kat Arney

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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