Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Jeff Martens, PhD
Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Senior Associate Dean of Research in the School of Medicine
Transcript:
So what excites me most about science is the process of discovery and the hope that it brings for improving human health.
My name is Jeff Martens and I'm a professor of pharmacology and also senior associate dean of research in the School of Medicine. My laboratory studies olfaction, which is our sense of smell. Specifically, we're interested in a unique population of neurons in the nose that connect to our brain, but are also unique in that they're exposed to the external environment.
Now, these neurons are necessary for our ability to detect chemicals in the air when we breathe in, when these neurons don't function properly. We are unable to smell.
Unfortunately, there are no curative therapies for olfactory loss. My laboratory has championed the use of gene therapy to provide hope to those patients who can't smell. So gene therapy means taking a lost gene or a defective gene and replacing it with a normal, healthy copy into these olfactory neurons. The Manny Institute, catalyzed by a gift from Paul and Diane Manning, is going to be a state of the art center to bring together novel biological therapies.
This will help our research by bringing together not only the expertise but also the technologies into a single location that will help to move our discoveries made at the bench to the bedside to better patients.
Jeff Martens, PhD
Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Senior Associate Dean of Research in the School of Medicine
Transcript:
So what excites me most about science is the process of discovery and the hope that it brings for improving human health.
My name is Jeff Martens and I'm a professor of pharmacology and also senior associate dean of research in the School of Medicine. My laboratory studies olfaction, which is our sense of smell. Specifically, we're interested in a unique population of neurons in the nose that connect to our brain, but are also unique in that they're exposed to the external environment.
Now, these neurons are necessary for our ability to detect chemicals in the air when we breathe in, when these neurons don't function properly. We are unable to smell.
Unfortunately, there are no curative therapies for olfactory loss. My laboratory has championed the use of gene therapy to provide hope to those patients who can't smell. So gene therapy means taking a lost gene or a defective gene and replacing it with a normal, healthy copy into these olfactory neurons. The Manny Institute, catalyzed by a gift from Paul and Diane Manning, is going to be a state of the art center to bring together novel biological therapies.
This will help our research by bringing together not only the expertise but also the technologies into a single location that will help to move our discoveries made at the bench to the bedside to better patients.
