Richard Axel

Template:Short description Template:Infobox scientist Richard Axel (born July 2, 1946) is an American molecular biologist and university professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His work on the olfactory system won him and Linda Buck, a former postdoctoral research scientist in his group, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2004.

Education and early life

Born in New York City to Polish Jewish immigrants, Axel grew up in Brooklyn.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1963,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> (along with Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Allan Lichtman, Ron Silver, and Alexander Rosenberg), received his B.A. in 1967 from Columbia University, and his M.D. in 1971 from Johns Hopkins University. However, he was poorly suited to medicine and graduated on the promise to his department chairman that he would not practice clinically.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He found his calling in research and returned to Columbia later that year, eventually becoming a full professor in 1978.

Research and career

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During the late 1970s, Axel, along with microbiologist Saul J. Silverstein and geneticist Michael H. Wigler, discovered a technique of cotransformation via transfection, a process which allows foreign DNA to be inserted into a host cell to produce certain proteins.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> A family of patents, now colloquially referred to as the "Axel patents", covering this technique were filed for February 1980 and were issued in August 1983.<ref name=axelpatents>Template:Cite journal</ref> As a fundamental process in recombinant DNA research as performed at pharmaceutical and biotech companies, this patent proved quite lucrative for Columbia University, earning it almost $100 million a year at one time, and a top spot on the list of top universities by licensing revenue.<ref name=axelpatents/> The Axel patents expired in August 2000.

In their landmark paper published in 1991,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Buck and Axel cloned olfactory receptors, showing that they belong to the family of G protein coupled receptors. By analyzing rat DNA, they estimated that there were approximately one thousand different genes for olfactory receptors in the mammalian genome. This research opened the door to the genetic and molecular analysis of the mechanisms of olfaction. In their later work, Buck and Axel have shown that each olfactory receptor neuron remarkably only expresses one kind of olfactory receptor protein and that the input from all neurons expressing the same receptor is collected by a single dedicated glomerulus of the olfactory bulb.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Axel's primary research interest is on how the brain interprets the sense of smell, specifically mapping the parts of the brain that are sensitive to specific olfactory receptors. He holds the titles of University Professor at Columbia University, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and of Pathology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In addition to contributions to neurobiology, Axel has also made seminal discoveries in immunology, and his lab was one of the first to identify the link between HIV infection and immunoreceptor CD4.

In addition to making contributions as a scientist, Axel has also mentored many leading scientists in the field of neurobiology. Seven of his trainees have become members of the National Academy of Sciences, and currently six of his trainees are affiliated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's investigator and early scientist award programs.

Awards and honors

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Axel has won numerous awards and honors. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in 1983.<ref name=AAAS>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2005, Axel received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Axel was awarded the Double Helix Medal in 2007. CSHL Double Helix Medal Honoree and was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2014. His nomination reads: Template:Centered pull quote

Personal life

Axel is married to fellow scientist and olfaction pioneer Cornelia Bargmann.<ref name="Nobelprize">Template:Nobelprize</ref> Previously, he had been married to Ann Axel, who is a social worker at Columbia University Medical Center. Owing to his tall stature, Axel played basketball during high school.<ref name="Nobelprize"/> The Guardian reports that, in 2010, he attended a birthday party in Paris for Jeffrey Epstein, who had been convicted of sex offenses in 2008.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Axel had earlier said of Epstein, "e has the ability to make connections that other minds can' make... He is extremely smart and probing."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• List of Jewish Nobel laureates

External links

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