UC Irvine researchers engineered lab-grown human brain tissue to take on characteristics of either the front or the back of the developing cerebral cortex.

The advance gives scientists a more realistic human model for studying how different areas of the brain emerge during early development.

When researchers used the model to study fragile X syndrome, they found disruptions in developmental patterns also implicated in autism spectrum disorder.

If you want to describe a particular color, you could look to the Pantone color wheel to find its exact hue, saturation and brightness, and how it compares to other colors. But nothing like that has existed for complex odors.

Now, research co-authored by Monell has gotten closer to that work, using machine learning to discriminate among scents and how they relate to each other. The work has potential applications in diagnosing some health conditions like diabetes or liver failure that have distinct olfactory signatures, as well as in the food, flavor, and fragrance industries.