HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Conference topics included a detailed explanation of the sense of smell from Linda Buck (above), associate director of the Division of Basic Sciences at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. (Staff photos Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard News Office)

The Radcliffe Institute's "Designing Biology" conference drew about 300 to a daylong program of talks, panel discussions, and poster sessions about the cutting edge of biology and how our increasingly detailed understanding of biological systems can be used to influence how they operate.

Radcliffe Institute Dean of Science Barbara Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences, opened the event, saying that the Radcliffe Institute's science programs aim to bring people together across disciplinary lines through events such as last week's conference.

Barbara J. Grosz (left), Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences, who opened the event, chats with participant Linda Buck.

The conference was sponsored by the institute, by Harvard's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, and by Harvard's Biomechanics Ph.D. program.

Ellen Williams, Distinguished University Professor at the Institute for Physical Science and Technology at the University of Maryland, provided historical perspective for the day. She said that whether people realize it or not, we're living in a time of revolutionary change in the biological sciences.

Williams traced the beginning of the revolution to 20 years ago, when the scanning probe microscope was invented. The microscope allowed scientists for the first time to understand the behavior of individual molecules, a large step forward from earlier work, which was based on observations of the average properties of large groups of molecules.

While the scanning probe microscope got things started, Williams said today there's a "whole raft of new tools and capabilities" that are helping researchers probe ever deeper into the basic processes of life.

"It's difficult to recognize when you're living in the middle of a revolution, but I think we are," Williams said.

The complexity of biological molecules and systems has proven hard to unravel, Williams said, but this complexity is yielding its secrets to today's researchers, who have begun to use their learning to manipulate these systems.

"There's a tremendous number of opportunities here. We're at a new frontier," Williams said.

Conference topics included a detailed explanation of the sense of smell from Linda Buck, associate director of the Division of Basic Sciences at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and affiliate professor at the University of Washington.

Other topics included engineering biological systems, how to make tiny nanoscale materials compatible with biological systems, using viruses in the construction of nanowires, lessons in optics that can be learned from marine organisms, and a panel discussion of connections with industry.

Buck, who, with Richard Axel, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine last year, provided a broad overview of her work on the sense of smell.

Buck said the sense of smell is critically important in nature. In many mammals, particular odors can spark specific behavior, such as flight, mating, and aggression.

Humans, she said, can detect and remember some 10,000 different odors, largely through a set of receptors in the nose. Each receptor is activated by a specific chemical compound - several of which may compose a single odor - and sends signals to the brain, where nerve activity triggered by the odor creates a pattern that is processed and remembered. Pheromones are handled by a different set of receptors and send their signals to a different part of the brain.

Studies have shown, Buck said, that a slight change in the structure of a molecule can result in a large change in its perceived odor. In addition, she said, changing concentrations of different molecules also affect how the odor is perceived.

In response to questions about pheromones, the chemicals that induce specific hardwired behavior, Buck said though they've been found in animals, they have yet to be found in humans. Most claims of the discovery of human pheromones, Buck said, have been made by people who have a business stake in finding them.

When asked whether perfumes can potentially mask natural human smells important in reproduction, Buck said there isn't any evidence of that.

"People are reproducing, so it doesn't seem to be interfering very much," Buck said.

alvin_powell@harvard.edu