Richard Axel

Education and early life

Born in New York City to Polish Jewish immigrants, Axel grew up in Brooklyn. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1963, (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. He found his calling in research and returned to Columbia later that year, eventually becoming a full professor in 1978.

Research and career

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.{{Cite journal | doi-access = free 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.{{Cite journal

In their landmark paper published in 1991,{{Cite journal | doi-access = free | doi-access = free

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 in 1983. In 2005, Axel received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

Axel was awarded the Double Helix Medal in 2007, and was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2014. His nomination reads:

Personal life

Axel is married to fellow scientist and olfaction pioneer Cornelia Bargmann. 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. 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. Axel had earlier said of Epstein, "He has the ability to make connections that other minds can’t make... He is extremely smart and probing."

References

References

1. "Richard Axel: Facts".
2. (23 October 2018). "Laureate - Richard Axel".
3. Eisner, Robin. (Winter 2005). "Richard Axel: One of the Nobility in Science". Columbia University.
4. (2014). "Life on the Edge : The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology". Crown.
5. "Richard Axel".
6. "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A". American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
7. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". [[American Academy of Achievement]].
8. Department, Communications. (November 21, 2007). "$3.1 Million Raised at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s 2007 Double Helix Medals Dinner".
9. "Professor Richard Axel ForMemRS". The Royal Society.
10. {{Nobelprize
11. "Staley pushed JP Morgan to keep Epstein as client despite human trafficking concerns, court hears".
12. Weiss, Philip. (Dec 7, 2007). "The Fantasist: A Sex-Crime Investigation Reveals Jeffrey Epstein's Dangerous Dream World".