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Nobel Prize Smells Sweet to U.S. Medical Researchers

Posted on: Tuesday, 5 October 2004, 06:00 CDT

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- American researchers Dr. Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine Monday for their work on the sense of smell -- showing how, for example, a person can smell a lilac in the spring and recall it in the winter.

Their genetic work revealed a family of proteins in the nose that recognizes odors, and they illuminated how the information is transmitted to the brain, letting it perceive and remember smells.

Axel, 58, of Columbia University in New York, shared the $1.3 million prize with Buck, 57, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Both are investigators with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

In 1991, when Buck was working in Axel's lab, they reported finding genes for "receptor" proteins that respond to particular odors. They have since worked independently.

Axel and Buck clarified the intricate biological pathway from the nose to the brain that lets people recognize smells. A whiff of an odor brings a mix of different molecules into the nose, where each molecule activates several odor receptors. This pattern of activation is interpreted by the brain, letting people identify and form memories of about 10,000 different odors, the Nobel Assembly said.

Informed of his award, Axel told Swedish public radio: "That's really marvelous, I'm so honored."

When asked if he had thought about becoming a Nobel laureate, he replied: "No, this is nothing I have been thinking about, I think about my science."

Asked what he would do first, he replied: "I'm going to have a cup of coffee."

Buck said she did not know she was under consideration.

"People have said things like, 'You should win the Nobel Prize,'" she said. "I feel very honored, of course."

The Karolinska Institute said the sense of smell "helps us detect the qualities we regard as positive. A good wine or a sun ripe wild strawberry activates a whole array of odorant receptors."

Academy members said that the decision to give the pair the award was not in light of any medical or commercial payoffs, but rather to honor their exploration of one of the humanity's most profound senses.

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