{"id":271,"date":"2026-04-09T17:44:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T21:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/liulab\/?p=271"},"modified":"2026-04-09T18:00:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:00:32","slug":"studying-taste-buds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/liulab\/2026\/04\/studying-taste-buds\/","title":{"rendered":"Studying taste buds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>RBC scientist&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/animaldairy.uga.edu\/people\/faculty\/hongxiang-liu.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hongxiang Liu<\/a>&nbsp;has been studying taste buds for more than two decades, identifying stem cells that eventually become taste buds and generating understanding of what happens at the molecular level to lead to specific cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Exploring Therapies toTreat Taste Disorders\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CIhROZa5PM8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The body is constantly generating new taste bud cells, which have a lifespan of only 12 days on average. Stem cells become progenitor&nbsp;cells, which develop into specialized cells in the body. Liu has shown that not all types of taste bud cells come from the same type of progenitor cells \u2014 bitter and sweet taste bud cells may develop from different progenitors than sour taste cells. By understanding how these different taste buds develop, Liu hopes this work will lead to therapies that help restore taste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMany of us take taste for granted,\u201d said Liu. \u201cBut the loss of taste often compromises quality of life and could help us understand diseases better.\u201d &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Originally published in <a href=\"https:\/\/fieldreport.caes.uga.edu\/features\/growing-the-future-of-medicine\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/fieldreport.caes.uga.edu\/features\/growing-the-future-of-medicine\/\">Growing the Future of Medicine article by Leonor Sierra<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RBC scientist\u00a0Hongxiang Liu\u00a0has been studying taste buds for more than two decades, identifying stem cells that eventually become taste buds and generating understanding of what happens at the molecular level to lead to specific cells.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1027,"featured_media":56,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/liulab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/liulab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/liulab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/liulab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1027"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/liulab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/liulab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/liulab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions\/284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/liulab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/liulab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/liulab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/liulab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}