Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from the line of Ken Goldman from Bear Stearns. Please proceed.
Ken Goldman- Bear Stearns
Good morning.
Kent Snyder
Hi, Ken.
Ken Goldman- Bear Stearns
Just wondering, it seemed like there was excellent progress scientifically in the sweet enhancer program this quarter. Maybe I was a little disappointed in the others. And I'm wondering if you can comment on your expectations for salt, bitter, and so forth a few months ago and how reality has met those expectations.
Kent Snyder
Mark, would you like to comment on that?
Mark Zoller
Sure. So I'll speak with salt first, because that's the one I think we're very excited about. So, salt as you recall, we identified a protein called Senomyx-29, which we believe is the primary receptor for salt taste. This is a major advance. And as a new protein, we had to set up some new assays.
In fact, we purchased and installed a new piece of equipment that's solely dedicated to Senomyx-29, and this instrument is up and running and will significantly help us ramp up the screening activities that we've initiated. And so we expect to see this start to take traction later this quarter and into the next quarter.
It's a little bit too soon to tell exactly when you're going to hear about taste proof-of-concept compounds, but we feel confident, based on our experience and success with the other receptor systems that when we have the right receptor, we've been able, in all cases, to identify a sample that provides a taste effect.
So I think it's just a matter of staying tuned. We're putting the pedal to the metal on this program and we expect to see the same success here that you've seen in the sweet program.
Turning to the bitter program, I think there, too, we've made significant achievements in the past quarter by demonstrating to one of our collaborators the use of 5105 and other bitter blockers to have a major effect, a significant effect on taste of a product prototype. And so we see this, also, as an advance. We're continuing to optimize and see if this blocker is sufficient for their needs; but we really believe that it's also a major advance.
And then the other programs, I think, are coming along. I think they're just a bit more complicated. Certainly the high-potency sweetener program, we're working with naturals these are mixtures. And so the next step is really to take the hits that we have, we've completed the primary screening and really separate them into the individual components and then analyze those.
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