Charles Zuker

Charles Zuker is widely recognised for his pioneering work on how the brain represents sensory experience and converts stimulus detection into perception. Over the past two decades, his laboratory has identified the cells and receptors responsible for all five basic taste qualities—sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami—and established the logic of taste coding from the tongue to the brain. Last year, his group determined the structure of the human sweet taste receptor, the key molecular driver of our powerful attraction to sugar. 
More recently, his research has expanded to the Body–Brain Axis, where his lab revealed the fundamental distinction between “liking” sugar and fat (mediated by the tongue) and “wanting” sugar and fat (mediated by the Gut-Brain Axis). His latest studies on brain control over body biology defined new circuits in body-brain signalling and uncovered how the brain monitors and modulates immunity and inflammation. 
Zuker is a Professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and has been an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1989. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.