Olfactory Receptor Genes Sequenced; Is Scented Internet on the Way?

DigiScents Inc. (Oakland, CA), a developer of digital scent technology, and Clontech (Palo Alto, CA), a biotechnology research firm, have successfully isolated, cloned, and sequenced 126 human olfactory receptor genes. By adding these sequences to publicly available research, DigiScents now has access to almost half of the estimated 1,000 genes that code for human olfactory receptors, which allow humans to detect and distinguish between smells.

The research is part of DigiScents' effort to combine biotechnology, informatics, and sensory research to scent-enable the Internet and other digital technologies. The company's digital scent products—such as iSmell, a scent-producing device that connects to a user's computer like a pair of speakers—enable consumers to experience scented websites, e-mail, movies, music, e-commerce, interactive games, and online advertising.

How It Works: 1. A scent is indexed along two parameters, its chemical makeup and its place in the scent "spectrum," then digitized into a small file. 2. The digital file is sent, attached to web content. 3. DigiScent's iSmell synthesizes the smell from a palette of "primary odors," following the guidelines of the digital file. (Graphic by XPLANE, www.xplane.com)

DigiScents introduced its technology for digitizing and broadcasting scents over the Internet in October 1999. Through a partnership with RealNetworks, DigiScents' ScentStream software will be downloaded to almost 100 million RealPlayer users. In addition, a partnership with Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) will make DigiScents' technology available across the Asia-Pacific via NOW, PCCW's Internet, e-commerce, and interactive television network.

DigiScents is a privately held corporation founded in February 1999 by Dexster Smith and Joel Bellenson. Smith and Bellenson also founded DoubleTwist, formerly Pangea Systems Inc., a biotechnology company that provides online access to bioinformatics software. (To learn more about DoubleTwist, read Coming to a Computer Near You—Double Twist Functional Genomics Tools.)

Clontech, recently acquired by Becton-Dickinson, is a biotechnology company that produces and markets products to academic and pharmaceutical labs in the United States and 30 other countries.

For more information, contact David Libby, director of public relations for DigiScents, at 510-625-4305 or davidl@digiscents.com.

Edited by Jim Pomager