Forget about looks. You should choose a mate by your sense of smell, because your nose knows better.
So says immunologist, Dr Alex Whelan, who reveals that while your eyes might prefer someone with a particular shape, your sense of smell will help find the person with the best genes.
Dr Whelan, who is chief medical scientist in the Department of Immunology at Trinity College and St James's Hospital, explained last night it all comes down to how your body's protective immune system interacts with other systems including the senses, nerves and hormones.
"Immunologists tended to think the immune system was just an independent system, but what we are finding is it isn't independent at all," he said during an Irish Times/Royal Dublin Society Science Today lecture.
Researchers were finding a surprising degree of connectivity between the system that protects us from infections and other systems in the body.
"We now know that animals can be conditioned to affect their immune system, for example by taste. Everything is in contact with the other, it makes sense," he stated.
Dr Whelan is researching how senses and the brain can influence how well your immune system works. "I am not certain you can think yourself well, but you can certainly think yourself sick," he stated.
The logic of this connectivity meant that your immune system might have a role in choosing a suitable mate, he said. Animals had evolved to respond unconsciously to smells. Although humans were unaware of this skill the necessary olfactory equipment, pheromone receptors, were still in place.
"When you inherit a bunch of immune system genes, you also inherit a bunch of pheromone genes," he said. "Your immune response genes are actually linked to your pheromone receptors."
Dr Whelan last night received the annual Irish Society of Immunology award for the top contribution to immunology in Ireland.
