Jennifer Brookes, a physics graduate, is one of sixteen newly qualified postdoctoral researchers to receive a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship award from the Wellcome Trust.
During her fellowship she will spend time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, where development is underway of the Realnose biosensor for detecting smells.
Odour detection involves smell molecules activating much larger protein receptors, setting off a cascade that ultimately activates a region of the brain known as the olfactory bulb.
The mechanism by which these molecules interact with the protein receptors is not clear.
Only certain molecules can activate a particular receptor, which originally led scientists to suggest a 'lock and key' analogy.
However, Brookes argues that this model is flawed, saying: 'We can have one molecule that smells like a lemon, but another, structurally very similar molecule that smells completely different.
'To complicate things further, there may be another molecule very different in structure that also smells like a lemon.
'The lock and key analogue doesn't work here.' An alternative theory to explain the mechanism for activation is the 'vibration theory of olfaction', first proposed in 1937 by Malcolm Dyson and expanded further in 1996 by Luca Turin; these two argued that it is molecules' natural frequency of vibration that activates the protein receptor.
Rather than being analogous to a lock and key, this mechanism has been likened to a swipe card.
Brookes aims to test the theory at MIT using the Realnose biosensor, which is being developed using real human olfactory receptors.
Unlike previous 'electronic noses', which have been developed to detect specific odours, Realnose should be capable of identifying novel odours.
Brookes hopes that this will help her develop a mathematical model that can predict how a particular molecule will smell and, conversely, how to develop a particular smell molecule.
She believes the applications could be far-reaching, adding: 'It's not just about allowing perfumists to design new scents.
'We have a similar situation in drug design.
'A particular drug target, for example, may behave one way, but changing the direction of just one chemical bond could drastically change how the drug works.
'Being able to predict which protein receptors a particular drug will act on and how it acts on it could help us design more effective drugs.' The Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowships provides GBP250,000 over four years so that researchers can pursue important biomedical research questions, working in the best laboratories in the UK and overseas.
Dr Candy Hassall, who oversees the fellowship programme at the Wellcome Trust, said: 'These awards aim to support a new generation of research leaders.
'The fellowships provide unprecedented freedom at a very early stage, enabling these outstanding newly qualified researchers to choose where they should go to develop their work and their ideas.' This year's recipients also include: Thomas Bowden, from the University of Oxford, who will use techniques in structural biology, immunology and cell biology.
Bowden will study, in atomic detail, the mechanism by which Rift Valley fever virus and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus attach to and infect human cells.
Despite the threat that these mosquito and tick-borne viruses pose, little is currently known of how they infect their host.
It is hoped that the information derived from Bowden's work will ultimately help to combat these pathogens.
Oliver Davis, from King's College London, will develop tools to bring the diverse data from complex genetic studies together into an understanding of the origins of learning disabilities such as dyslexia, behavioural problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and developmental difficulties such as autism.
He will apply these tools to data from thousands of children in the Twins Early Development Study to unravel the nature and nurture of some of the key problems of childhood.
Dr Marcia Lagarde, from University of Sussex, will study how specific supporting cells within the mammalian inner ear contribute to hearing capabilities.
She will examine how the structures of these supporting cells contribute to the excitation of the auditory sensory cells, which they surround, during postnatal development of the cochlea.
Excitation of the auditory sensory cells is the first, crucial step in the neural pathway that enables humans to hear.
Hannah Mischo, of the London Research Institute, Cancer Research UK, will use a yeast analogue to investigate the function of a particular protein that prevents DNA damage accumulation.
Human diseases that do not originate from external factors are often caused by mutations in genes encoding proteins that have an essential function for the survival of a single cell and consequently the entire body.
One such essential function is to prevent DNA damage.
If genes that code for proteins that guard the integrity of DNA are mutated, cells will accumulate more DNA damage as they age, leading to their premature death.
Dr Marie Schroeder, from the University of Oxford, will use a new technique known as 'hyperpolarised magnetic resonance' to examine in real-time cardiac function and energy metabolism throughout progressive heart failure.
This approach may help to identify whether disordered metabolism is a cause or symptom of heart failure.
She will also examine how patterns of gene expression regulate energy production in the heart and affect whole-heart function.
Such information will aid the understanding and diagnosis of heart failure and will also help to target treatment methods.
