#45: In this episode, Frauke sits down with experimental psychologist, Assistant Director, and Assistant Member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center Valentina Parma, PhD to discuss where we are today in terms of testing and diagnosing the health of a person's sense of smell. Valentina shares how COVID became a magnifying glass for connecting the sense of smell to our health, and how unprepared we all were in our ability to assess olfactory health when smell loss became a key symptom of the virus. She explains how screening for small, incremental changes in olfactory function (and dysfunction) from an early age has the potential to help doctors detect olfactory disorders, then monitor their progress, and even intervene early in the diagnosis of such illnesses as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Valentina also provides information on an exciting new rapid smell test being developed by Monell scientists and collaborators called SCENTinel, and reveals her mission to get this quick and inexpensive screening tool into every doctor's office around the world. Frauke and Valentina also discuss the important collaborative work being done by the GCCR and the 3 simple tests you can do at home to assess your own olfactory health. 

Learn more about the rapid screening tool SCENTinel: https://monell.org/smell-check/

Evaluate your olfactory health using the GCCR surveys (3 tools): https://gcchemosensr.org/

Visit the Monell website and learn how you can talk to children about the senses of smell and taste (science activity): https://monell.org/covid-19-resources/

Learn how you can participate in Monell research projects: https://monell.org/covid-19-resources/

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