The COVID-19 and Taste Lab: A Mini Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience on Taste Differences and COVID-19 Susceptibility

Traditional course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are common approaches to expose students to authentic laboratory practices. Traditional CUREs typically take up most of or an entire semester, require a laboratory section or may be a standalone lab course, and require significant financial and time commitments by the institution and instructors. As such, CUREs are harder to implement at institutions with fewer resources. Here, we developed a mini-CURE, which are typically shorter in duration, called the COVID-19 and Taste Lab (CT-LAB). The CT-LAB requires significantly fewer resources ($0.05/student) and time commitment (two class periods) than traditional CUREs. CT-LAB centers around the biological relationship between COVID-19 susceptibility and taste status (non-taster, taster, and supertaster) as well as potential implications for public policy behavior. Students participated in a class-wide study where they examined if taste status was related to COVID-19 susceptibility. They found that non-tasters had a higher likelihood of testing positive previously for COVID-19 compared to tasters and supertasters. To assess student outcomes of this CURE, students completed a pre- and post-test assessment including a content test, STEM identity survey, taste test, COVID-19 history test, and a modified CURE survey. Content test scores improved while STEM identity and attitudes about science were unchanged. A direct comparison to a repository of traditional CUREs shows that the CT-LAB produced comparable benefits to traditional CUREs primarily in skills that were particularly relevant for the CT-LAB. This work suggests that mini-CUREs, even as brief as two class periods, could be a way to improve student outcomes.

Paternal grandmother's smoking in pregnancy is associated with extreme aversion to bitter taste in their grandchildren

Although there are many examples in the experimental literature of an environmental exposure in one generation impacting the phenotypes of subsequent generations, there are few studies that can assess whether such associations occur in humans. The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) has, however, been able to determine whether there are associations between grandparental exposures and their grandchildren's development. Several of our studies, including sensitivity to loud noise, have shown associations between a grandmother smoking in pregnancy and the phenotype of the grandchild. These results were mostly specific to the sex of the grandchild and to whether the prenatal (i.e. during pregnancy) smoking occurred in the maternal or paternal grandmother. Here, we have used ancestral data on prenatal smoking among the grandmothers of the ALSPAC index children to examine possible effects on the grandchild's ability to detect the bitter taste of PROP (6 n-propylthiouracil), distinguishing between the 10% deemed 'extreme tasters', and the rest of the population (total N = 4656 children). We showed that grandchildren whose paternal (but not maternal) grandmothers had smoked in pregnancy were more likely than those of non-smoking grandmothers to be extreme tasters [odds ratio (OR) 1.28; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03, 1.59] and that this was more likely in granddaughters (OR 1.42; 95% CI 1.03, 1.95) than grandsons (OR 1.18; 95% CI 0.88, 1.60). This pattern of association between paternal foetal exposure and the granddaughter's development has been found with several other outcomes, suggesting that investigations should be undertaken to investigate possible mechanisms.