ECRO 2023 – Diverse Flavors

The annual conference of ECRO (the European Chemoreception Research
Organization, that promotes fundamental and applied research in chemosensory
science especially olfaction and taste in vertebrates and invertebrates, ECRO - chemicalsenses) was organized by (amongst others) SSEB’s Sanne Boesveldt and Nutrional Biology’s Jocelijn Meijerink and took place in Nijmegen, 18-21 Sept

This year’s theme was ‘Diverse Flavors’, which showcased in a diversity of topics, speakers, attendants and social events. The SSEB group was well represented by various posters (Birgit van Dijk and Parvaneh Parvin, on chemosensory changes in Covid-19 patients, Xinmeng Yang, on olfactory priming, and Eva Cad and Leoné Pretorius on sweet taste), a symposium chaired by Matjaz Pirc (Flavor: perception and integration) including an oral presentation by Beyza Ustun on flavor learning in utero, and a keynote lecture by Ciarán Forde entitled ‘Better living through sensory’. The NB group was represented by a symposium chaired by Jocelijn Meijerink ‘chemosensing beyond the oral-nasal cavity, how diverse tissues can smell and taste’. Within this symposium Rianne Jansen gave an oral presentation on how intestinal olfactory receptors are modulated by (a high fat) diet. A poster by Sarah van Dinteren revealed a new mini-gut organoid model very suitable to study chemoreception. Besides the scientific program, there were lots of fun and social activities, such as a chef’s tasting workshop, a mentoring and networking event organized by Women In Olfactory Science (WIOS, Women in Olfactory Science (google.com)) and last but not least, the concluding gala dinner and dance party in Fort Lent!

A personal highlight were the keynotes by Kara Hoover (Smelling in the past, the wild, the city), Marianna Obrist (A flavor of the future of multisensory interfaces) and by Inge Depoortere (Role of bitter taste receptors in the human intestine in the regulation of metabolism and innate immunity during obesity). In addition, it was an interesting process to organize such an international conference (~200 attendants, across 27 countries); a lot of work, but very satisfactory to see everything running so smoothly and with so many enthusiastic participants. Besides, it was a nice and fruitful collaboration between SSEB and NB. Many thanks to everyone making ECRO 2023 a big success!

- Sanne Boesveldt and Jocelijn Meijerink