MouSensor, Inc. is an early stage biotech start-up that engineers super sniffer mice to build a human-nose-on-a-chip. We have the bold vision to detect, discover and digitize every single smell on this planet; from the fragrances in a perfumer’s palette to the Chardonnay in your wine cellar. We aim to establish a digital database of scents, much like the objective RGB code for vision, and to demystify the last mystery of the senses, Olfaction.
The MouSensor platform is the product of more than 25 years of fundamental research on the molecular biology of the sense of smell. The science behind the technology has been extensively validated by the co-founders of the company, Dr. Paul Feinstein and Dr. Charlotte D’Hulst, at Hunter College, CUNY in the heart of New York City and was published in the peer-reviewed journal in 2016.
Founded and headquartered in New York City, we are proud to be part of a vibrant biotech entrepreneurial ecosystem which allows us to attract talented graduates and experts to achieve our scientific goals. MouSensor, Inc. is a certified NYC Innovation Hotspot and resides in the in Brooklyn, NY.
Volatile odors in our environment bind specific sensors in the nose, called odorant receptors (ORs). Even though the full OR repertoire was identified in 1991, only 10% of all human ORs have a known ligand. The fundamental reason why large-scale odor-profiling of ORs has been lagging, is that ORs are notoriously hard to express outside their native environment (i.e., in vitro). Hence, conventional pharmacological screening methods cannot be used to identify which odors bind with what receptors. MouSensor, LLC uses mice (our so-called MouSensors) as bioreactors to express large amounts of fully functional human ORs in their native environment, i.e., an olfactory sensory neuron (OSN). Our revolutionary platform technology allows us to easily customize different MouSensor lines and to build an entire library of animals covering the full human OR repertoire. We are currently translating our in vivo technology to an ex vivo odor detection platform to build a human-nose-on-a-chip, which integrates the MouSensor biology with state-of-the-art chip technology. Our biological nose-on-a chip has tremendous potential in Flavor and Fragrance R&D, explosive detection and even in disease diagnostics and biomarker discovery.
Richard Crockett, MD
Business Advisor
Charles Srebnik
Business Advisor
Steve Sun, PhD
Business Advisor