About the Authors

Koichi Matsumura

Current address: Department of Integrated Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, Chiba, Japan

Affiliation Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Maryanne Opiekun

Affiliation Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Hiroaki Oka

Affiliation Panasonic Corporation, Kyoto, Japan

Anil Vachani

Affiliation University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Steven M. Albelda

Affiliation University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Kunio Yamazaki

Affiliation Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Gary K. Beauchamp

beauchamp@monell.org

Affiliation Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Competing Interests

This research was supported by a grant from the Panasonic Corporation. The authors declare no other competing interests. There are no patents or patents pending based on the work and there are no products arising from the work under development. None of the authors, aside from one co-author who is employed by Panasonic (Dr. Oka), have any financial relationships that could be perceived as relevant including stock ownership, consultancy agreements, or travel grants or honoraria. Dr. Oka helped conceive of the original idea for this work and reviewed the manuscript but the other coauthors designed the study, conducted it, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: KM HO SMA KY GKB. Performed the experiments: KM MO. Analyzed the data: KM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KM HO AV SMA. Wrote the paper: KM AV SMA KY GKB.