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AROUND THE QUADS

Axel Wins Nobel Prize

By Laura Butchy

Richard Axel ’67

Dr. Richard Axel ’67, University Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and Pathology, won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Linda B. Buck of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for their work explaining how the olfactory system works. Buck was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia when they published their initial paper on the subject in 1991.

Their work has clarified how the nose is able to distinguish more than 10,000 smells, mapping the genes that govern the sense of smell and determining how the brain processes smells into perception and memory. Their research also uncovered more than 1,000 different genes that encode olfactory receptors in the nose, which is believed to be the largest gene family in the human genome.

“I’m deeply honored and very pleased,” Axel said. “This honor represents the efforts of many faculty, students and fellows who have worked in our laboratories at Columbia University Medical Center. I have received enormous support through the years, beginning with the scholarship I received to attend Columbia College.”

The sense of smell is possible because receptors in the nose pick up odors from the environment and send that information directly to the olfactory bulb, the first relay station in the brain. Axel and Buck determined how neurons converge in the olfactory bulb, which offered insight into how the brain processes smells. Each olfactory receptor cell possesses only one type of odorant receptor, and each receptor can detect a limited number of odorant substances, so the olfactory receptor cells are highly specialized for a few odors. Most odors are composed of multiple odorant molecules, and each odorant molecule activates several odorant receptors, leading to a combined odorant pattern, which allows us to recognize and form memories of approximately 10,000 different odors.

“Drs. Axel and Buck embody the spirit of creativity that gives the university such immeasurable value and relevance to our world,” President Lee C. Bollinger said. “Their achievement adds to Columbia’s proud 250-year heritage and stands out among the many contributions Columbians continue to make through their dedicated research in science and medicine and so many other endeavors.”

Axel and Buck join the list of 70 other people who have taught, conducted research or studied at Columbia and have received the Nobel Prize since it was first awarded in 1901, including 19 in the category of physiology or medicine.

Gerald D. Fischbach, executive v.p. of the Medical Center, said, “Dr. Axel’s work is among the most important discoveries of the past 50 years, providing insights regarding how individuals perceive their external environment. He has been an enormously important influence for all the sciences here at Columbia.”

Axel has spent his entire professional career at Columbia. In addition to being University Professor, Axel is an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at P&S, an investigator for Columbia’s Kavli Institute for Brain Science and a member of the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior at the Medical Center.

There are no set guidelines for deciding who wins the Nobel Prize. Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite who endowed the awards, simply said the winner “shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine.” The Nobel Assembly at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institutet selects the medicine prizewinner after inviting nominations from previous recipients, professors of medicine and other professionals worldwide. The awards will be presented on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s 1896 death.

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