Richard Axel

About Richard Axel

Who is it?: Researcher
Birth Day: July 02, 1946
Birth Place: Brooklyn, New York City, United States
Residence: USA
Citizenship: United States
Alma mater: Stuyvesant High School Columbia University Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Spouse(s): Cornelia Bargmann
Awards: Richard Lounsbery Award (1989) Gairdner Foundation International Award (2003) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2004) ForMemRS (2014)
Fields: Neuroscience
Institutions: Columbia University
Notable students: Linda Buck David J. Anderson Catherine Dulac David Julius Richard Scheller
Website: www.axellab.columbia.edu

Richard Axel

Richard Axel was born on July 02, 1946 in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, is Researcher. One of world’s leading scientists, Richard Axel is the professor of molecular biophysics and pathology at Columbia University. He is well-known for his Nobel Prize-winning paper on ‘olfactory receptors’, which explains how the brain interprets smell. His ground-breaking discovery, ‘Axel Patents’ has earned him an estimated $600 million in royalty, with numerous pharmaceutical companies adopting this innovation. In addition to his contributions in the field of neurobiology, he has made several path-breaking discoveries in the area of immunology. His lab was the first to discover molecules related to the inhibition of the AIDS virus. He has been a recipient of numerous awards and has trained and mentored many leading scientists in the field of neurobiology. He also holds the title of ‘Investigator’ at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His cutting-edge discoveries in the field of science and technology including, DNA transfection has played a critical role in the study and research of biology. He is currently pursuing research in the field of scent detection in the human brain. To learn more interesting facts about his childhood, personal life, academic and scientific achievements, scroll down and read the biography below.
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Does Richard Axel Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Richard Axel is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020).

🎂 Richard Axel - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

Currently, Richard Axel is 78 years, 5 months and 20 days old. Richard Axel will celebrate 79rd birthday on a Wednesday 2nd of July 2025. Below we countdown to Richard Axel upcoming birthday.

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Popular As Richard Axel
Occupation Scientists
Age 76 years old
Zodiac Sign Leo
Born July 02, 1946 (Brooklyn, New York City, United States)
Birthday July 02
Town/City Brooklyn, New York City, United States
Nationality United States

🌙 Zodiac

Richard Axel’s zodiac sign is Leo. According to astrologers, people born under the sign of Leo are natural born leaders. They are dramatic, creative, self-confident, dominant and extremely difficult to resist, able to achieve anything they want to in any area of life they commit to. There is a specific strength to a Leo and their "king of the jungle" status. Leo often has many friends for they are generous and loyal. Self-confident and attractive, this is a Sun sign capable of uniting different groups of people and leading them as one towards a shared cause, and their healthy sense of humor makes collaboration with other people even easier.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Richard Axel was born in the Year of the Dog. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Dog are loyal, faithful, honest, distrustful, often guilty of telling white lies, temperamental, prone to mood swings, dogmatic, and sensitive. Dogs excel in business but have trouble finding mates. Compatible with Tiger or Horse.

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Awards and nominations:

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. 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:

Biography/Timeline

1963

Born in New York City, New York, Axel graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1963, received his A.B. in 1967 from Columbia University, and his M.D. in 1971 from Johns Hopkins University. He returned to Columbia later that year and became a full professor in 1978.

1970

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. 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. 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. The Axel patents expired in August 2000.

1983

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. 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:

1991

In their landmark paper published in 1991, 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.

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