Research revolution: Regensburg scientist discovers secrets of smell!

Research revolution: Regensburg scientist discovers secrets of smell!

On June 17, 2025, Prof. Dr. Veronica Egger, head of the neurophysiology working group at the University of Regensburg, received the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant for her COLUMNET project. This project will be funded with 3.5 million euros over a period of five years. University President Prof. Dr. Udo Hebel praised the decision of the European Research Council (ERC) and praised Egger's research work, which focuses on the processing of smells in the brain.

The human sense of smell is considered to be evolutionarily old, but remains in many ways less well understood than the senses of sight and hearing. In the 1990s, the first olfactory receptor proteins were discovered, allowing each odorant to activate multiple types of olfactory receptors, while olfactory sensory cells only have one type of receptor. These cells transmit their information to the olfactory bulb, where they are connected to mitral cells. All olfactory sensory cells that have the same receptor are also linked to the mitral cells via special connections.

Research in detail

As part of the COLUMNET project, Egger is investigating the neural network mechanisms for representing olfactory objects. Smell objects are fundamentally different from those we perceive visually. A central focus of the research is on the reciprocal microcircuits between mitral cells and granule cells, whose simultaneous activation is crucial for signal processing. Novel mechanisms of local synaptic processing are also being explored.

As the ice.mpg.de reports, the research group also uses insects such as the vinegar fly (Drosophila melanogaster) as a model organism. These insects have a less complex neural network, which makes them easier to study. When processing odors, it turns out that unpleasant smells can reduce the perception of pleasant smells. The olfactory system therefore plays a crucial role in the encoding of chemical information and in the neuronal representation of the environment.

The researchers' goal is to understand the neural circuits so that they can control the insects' behavior. For these studies, they use a combination of neurogenetic tools and various imaging and anatomical techniques. Among other things, an in vivo 3D atlas of the fly antennal lobe will be created to better analyze the functional imaging data.

Technological approaches and further development

Another important aspect of the research is the plasticity of olfactory circuits, including modulation by the animal's internal state and previous experiences. In addition, related species, such as sister species of D. melanogaster and non-model organisms, are also being investigated to gain a more comprehensive understanding of olfactory mechanisms.

As in the ice.mpg.de mentioned, the neural basis of the sense of smell is also analyzed from a morphological and evolutionary perspective. The research focuses on the olfactory systems of drosphilids and small coeleopters. Several key techniques such as confocal microscopy, neuronal tracers and electron microscopy are used to study the neuronal circuits in the brain of arthropods.

Using genetic tools to identify cells and applying cutting-edge methods to decode synaptic microcircuits allows scientists to create realistic models of the nervous system. This makes it possible to investigate the effects of brain miniaturization on neuronal architecture, especially in certain species of beetles.

The ERC Advanced Grant is part of the EU Horizon Europe program and is one of the most prestigious awards in European research funding. It is aimed at established top researchers and is evidence of the high quality of the scientific work carried out at the University of Regensburg.