Hiroaki Matsunami

About

Hiroaki Matsunami is a Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Minnie Geller Distinguished Professor in Genetics, Professor of Neurobiology, Professor of Cell Biology, and a member of several interdisciplinary institutes at Duke University, including the Duke Cancer Institute Faculty Network and the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. He earned his bachelor's degree in Biology from Kyoto University in 1991, followed by a master's degree in 1993 and a Ph.D. in 1996, where he studied the role of cadherin cell adhesion molecules during brain development in mammals. Dr. Matsunami completed his postdoctoral training in Dr. Linda Buck's lab at Harvard University, where he identified a family of vomeronasal chemosensory receptors (V2Rs) and, together with Dr. Jean-Pierre Montmayeur, discovered a family of bitter taste receptors (T2Rs). His work was acknowledged by Dr. Buck in her Nobel lecture, as she and Dr. Richard Axel were awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Since establishing his own lab at Duke University in 2001, Dr. Matsunami has focused on elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying mammalian chemosensation, including taste and smell. His lab identified the RTP family of accessory proteins that enable functional expression of mammalian odorant receptors (ORs) in heterologous cells, overcoming a major challenge in the field and enabling high-throughput deorphanization of ORs. His research demonstrated that genetic variation in human ORs,…

Research topics

• Biology
• Neuroscience
• Immunology
• Genetics
• Virology
• Chemistry
• Medicine
• Cell biology
• Pathology
• Biochemistry

Selected publications

• Non-neuronal expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry genes in the olfactory system suggests mechanisms underlying COVID-19-associated anosmia

  Science Advances · 2020 · 1234 citations

  Altered olfactory function is a common symptom of COVID-19, but its etiology is unknown. A key question is whether SARS-CoV-2 (CoV-2) - the causal agent in COVID-19 - affects olfaction directly, by infecting olfactory sensory neurons or their targets in the olfactory bulb, or indirectly, through perturbation of supporting cells. Here we identify cell types in the olfactory epithelium and olfactory bulb that express SARS-CoV-2 cell entry molecules. Bulk sequencing demonstrated that mouse, non-hum…

  DOI

• Single-cell analysis of olfactory neurogenesis and differentiation in adult humans

  Nature Neuroscience · 2020 · 249 citations

  DOI

• Olfactory receptor 2 in vascular macrophages drives atherosclerosis by NLRP3-dependent IL-1 production

  Science · 2022 · 220 citations

  in mice significantly reduced atherosclerotic plaques. Our findings suggest that inhibiting OR6A2 may provide a promising strategy to prevent and treat atherosclerosis.

  DOI

• Engineered odorant receptors illuminate the basis of odour discrimination

  Nature · 2024-10-30 · 40 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A chemical signal in human female tears lowers aggression in males

  PLoS Biology · 2023-12-21 · 7 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Rodent tears contain social chemosignals with diverse effects, including blocking male aggression. Human tears also contain a chemosignal that lowers male testosterone, but its behavioral significance was unclear. Because reduced testosterone is associated with reduced aggression, we tested the hypothesis that human tears act like rodent tears to block male aggression. Using a standard behavioral paradigm, we found that sniffing emotional tears with no odor percept reduced human male aggression…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01DC010857

  NIH · $1.6M · 2015

• Biogenesis of olfactory G protein-coupled receptors

  NIH · $2.2M · 2017–2024

• Collaborative Research: Analysis of the Mammalian Olfactory Code

  NSF · $1.3M · 2015–2020

Frequent coauthors

• Claire A. de March

  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  223 shared

• Hanyi Zhuang

  Ruijin Hospital

  111 shared

• Joel D. Mainland

  University of Pennsylvania

  104 shared

• Jérôme Golebiowski

  Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology

  88 shared

• Yosuke Fukutani

  Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

  87 shared

• Yoshiro Ishimaru

  Meiji University

  75 shared

• Kentaro Ikegami

  Astellas Pharma (Japan)

  74 shared

• Qiuyi Chi

  Duke University

  67 shared

Labs

• Matsunami LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Molecular and Cell Biology

  University of California, San Francisco

  1999

• B.S., Molecular and Cell Biology

  University of California, Berkeley

  1994

Similar researchers at Duke University

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• Jack Donald Keeneh-100
• Thomas Douglas Petesh-78