Research could help people with Anosmia

An often overlooked problem with old age is anosmsia, the absence of smell. Many people who suffer from anosmia lose the will to eat because the ability to taste depends upon our sense of smell. This often leads to malnutrition and becomes a slippery slope with elder sufferers.

Researchers at UC Berkeley have pinpointed a regulatory gene in nose cells called p63 that when is "switched on" self renews olfactory stem cells and when is "switched off" differentiates to replace more mature cells in the nose.

A drug that regulates p63 might be able to boost the mature cells or stem cells in the nose. P63 is found in many types of epithelial cells and more research could lead to "cell replacement therapies" that could be used all over the body.

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/12/07/research-could-help-people-with-declining-sense-of-smell/