The volume provides, in a multi-author format, the proceedings of the International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste held in San Francisco in July 2008. The collected proceedings offer an up-to-date description of the status of research in the areas of taste, smell, and trigeminal chemoreception. The presentations are grouped into four thematic areas: peripheral events in chemoreception, central processing of chemosensory signals, chemosignals in behavior, and chemical senses in health and disease. Included are unique chapters offering the most recent syntheses unavailable elsewhere.