Taste plays a crucial role in guiding food choices and ensuring safety, but it is difficult to capture in a lab setting. Analytical techniques like Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, and high-performance liquid chromatography can deconstruct chemical profiles. Still, they cannot reflect real-time sensory function and are too complex and expensive for routine use.
Attempts to engineer taste sensors using synthetic materials or conventional cell lines have fallen short of mimicking the biological architecture and responsiveness of natural taste buds. But, recent breakthroughs in organoid technology have opened new doors and enabled researchers to grow taste bud-like structures that mature functionally and morphologically over time.
When paired with electronics, these living models offer a compelling route to dynamic taste sensing rooted in human biology.
Inside the Experiment
To build their sensor, the team began by isolating taste epithelial cells from mouse tongues. These were cultured into organoids over 14 days, during which the structures developed the key morphological features of native taste buds, including layered cellular organization and signs of functional maturity.
The matured organoids were then integrated with a multi-channel microelectrode array (MEA), allowing for precise recording of electrical activity. Each MEA chip was kept in a controlled environment (37 °C, 5 % CO2) to simulate physiological conditions.
Taste stimuli representing the five basic modalities: bitterness (saccharin), saltiness (NaCl), sourness (citric acid), sweetness (sucrose), and umami (glycine), were applied in randomized sequences, with each stimulus introduced three times.
Electrical signals were recorded both spontaneously and in response to stimuli. The team used signal filtering and principal component analysis (PCA) to clarify and differentiate responses, focusing on spike frequency, amplitude, and regional variation across the MEA channels. These electrical patterns were further correlated with histological assessments to track the structural evolution of the organoids over time.
Distinct Electrical Signatures for Each Taste
After two weeks of culture, the organoids exhibited notable structural changes, including fusion and cellular aggregation, hallmarks of maturation. These morphological shifts coincided with improved functional performance: the organoids produced distinct electrical signals in response to each taste stimulus, with response strength increasing over time.
Different stimuli elicited characteristic patterns of electrical activity. Salt and umami, for example, triggered significantly higher spike frequencies and amplitudes compared to other tastes. This variability in activity across different MEA channels pointed to localized sensitivity within the organoids, mirroring the spatially distributed nature of real taste buds.
PCA further validated the sensor’s ability to distinguish between taste types, effectively clustering response patterns by stimulus. These results underscore the potential of the organoid-MEA system to emulate natural taste processing. They translate biological input into reproducible, quantifiable electrical data.
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Stability, Sensitivity, and Future Potential
One key advantage of this approach is its dynamic functionality. Unlike chemical assays that yield static profiles, this biosensor captures how living cells respond to tastes in real time. The system also showed a high degree of repeatability across multiple stimulation cycles, an essential trait for practical applications in food analysis and diagnostics.
However, it is not quite ready for rollout. Replicating the full complexity of mixed tastes and real food samples is still out of reach. The researchers observed that long-term culture conditions, including organoid fusion, significantly impacted sensitivity, suggesting that structural maturation is closely linked to functional output. Fine-tuning these conditions may improve the sensor’s ability to decode more complex flavor profiles or subtle concentration changes.
Looking ahead, the team sees potential for broad applications, from automated quality control in food manufacturing to clinical tools for diagnosing taste disorders. As the technology matures, it could enable fast, portable, and biologically informed taste assessment, bridging the gap between sensory science and electronic measurement.
Final Thoughts
By integrating taste organoids with microelectrode arrays, this study introduces a compelling biosensing platform capable of long-term, accurate taste discrimination. The organoids resemble real taste buds structurally and also generate stimulus-specific electrical signatures, offering a functional analog to human taste perception.
While its capabilities need refining, this approach is a step towards more biologically faithful taste-sensing systems. These tools could reshape how we monitor food quality, study sensory health, and develop flavor-enhanced products.
Journal Reference
Liu S., et al. (2025). Long-term culture and morphological maturation of taste organoids enhance taste discrimination in a biomimetic biosensor. Microsystems & Nanoengineering 11, 120. DOI: 10.1038/s41378-025-00978-4, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41378-025-00978-4