Richard Axel | |
|---|---|
 Axel in 2014 | |
| Born | (1946-07-02)July 2, 1946 (age 79) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Spouse | Cornelia Bargmann |
| Awards | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience |
| Institutions | Columbia University |
| Notable students | |
| Website | www |
Richard Axel (born July 2, 1946) is an American molecular biologist anduniversity professor in the Department of Neuroscience atColumbia University and investigator at theHoward Hughes Medical Institute. His work on theolfactory system won him andLinda Buck, a formerpostdoctoral research scientist in his group, theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2004.
Born inNew York City to Polish Jewish immigrants, Axel grew up inBrooklyn.[1][2] He graduated fromStuyvesant High School in 1963,[3] (along withBruce Bueno de Mesquita,Allan Lichtman,Ron Silver, andAlexander Rosenberg), received his B.A. in 1967 fromColumbia University, and his M.D. in 1971 fromJohns Hopkins University. However, he was poorly suited to medicine and graduated on the promise to his department chairman that he would not practice clinically.[4] He found his calling in research and returned to Columbia later that year, eventually becoming a full professor in 1978.
During the late 1970s, Axel, along withmicrobiologist Saul J. Silverstein and geneticistMichael H. Wigler, discovered a technique ofcotransformation viatransfection, a process which allows foreign DNA to be inserted into a host cell to produce certain proteins.[5][6][7][8][9][10]A family ofpatents, now colloquially referred to as the "Axel patents", covering this technique were filed for February 1980 and were issued in August 1983.[11] As a fundamental process in recombinant DNA research as performed atpharmaceutical andbiotech 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.[11] The Axel patents expired in August 2000.
In their landmark paper published in 1991,[12] Buck and Axelclonedolfactory receptors, showing that they belong to the family ofG protein coupled receptors. By analyzing ratDNA, they estimated that there were approximately one thousand differentgenes for olfactory receptors in themammaliangenome. This research opened the door to thegenetic andmolecular analysis of the mechanisms ofolfaction. In their later work, Buck and Axel have shown that eacholfactory 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 dedicatedglomerulus of theolfactory bulb.[13]
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 ofUniversity Professor atColumbia University, Professor ofBiochemistry and MolecularBiophysics and ofPathology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Investigator of theHoward 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 betweenHIV infection and immunoreceptorCD4.
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.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Axel has won numerous awards and honors. He was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of theNational Academy of Sciences[14] in 1983.[15] In 2005, Axel received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[16]
Axel was awarded the Double Helix Medal in 2007.CSHL Double Helix Medal Honoree and was elected aForeign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2014. His nomination reads:
Richard Axel is a distinguished molecular biologist and neuroscientist. He developed gene transfer techniques that permit the introduction of virtually any gene into any cell permitting the production of a large number of clinically important proteins and leading to the isolation of a gene for CD4, the cellular receptor for the AIDS virus, HIV. He then applied molecular biology to neuroscience revealing over a thousand genes involved in the recognition of odours, a discovery for which he shared the Nobel Prize in 2004. He currently explores how odour recognition is translated into internal representations in the brain.[17]
Axel is married to fellow scientist and olfaction pioneerCornelia Bargmann.[18] 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.[18] 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.[19] Axel had earlier said of Epstein, "e has the ability to make connections that other minds can' make... He is extremely smart and probing."[20]
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