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Nobel Jews
Portrait of Richard Axel
Photo: NIH, http://nihrecord.od.nih.gov/newsletters/2008/10_03_2008/story2.htm · Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine · 2004

Richard Axel

A Brooklyn tailor's son who found the huge gene family behind the sense of smell, and helped turn cells into factories for medicines.

The Nobel citation: “for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system”
Born
July 2, 1946, New York, NY, USA
Shared with
Linda B. Buck
Affiliation at the time
Columbia University, USA

Medicine prize

2004

Shared with 1 other laureate.

Age that year

58years

Born in 1946.

Headline credited impact

$15–20billion in economic value

Cumulative global sales of genetically engineered non-antibody protein medicines (a proxy for economic activity). How it was built

Sources cited

27

Fact-checked September 24, 2026.

  • With Linda Buck he found that rodents carry about 1,000 genes for smell receptors, one of the largest gene families in the genome.
  • Johns Hopkins let him graduate from medical school early on his promise never to practice medicine on live patients.
  • As a high school center he faced a teenage Lew Alcindor, later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who scored 54 points to his two.
  • In 1986 his lab cloned the gene for CD4, a protein on immune cells, and proved that it alone lets HIV attach to and infect human cells.
  • Two scientists who trained in his lab, Linda Buck and David Julius, went on to win Nobel Prizes of their own.

The breakthrough

The smell receptor genes and the brain's map of odors

Your nose can tell apart an enormous range of smells, from coffee to smoke to a ripe strawberry. Until 1991 no one knew how. That year Axel and Linda Buck, then a postdoctoral fellow in his Columbia lab, reported a very large family of genes that are switched on only in the lining of the nose. The genes make receptor proteins that weave through the cell's outer membrane seven times, the same basic design as many other signal-detecting receptors in the body. Rodents have about 1,000 of these genes. Finished genome sequences later counted about 1,300 in mice and about 500 in humans. Axel and Buck then showed, in separate work, that each smell-sensing nerve cell uses just one receptor type. Axel's lab bred mice whose nerve cells carried a genetic tag and saw that all cells carrying the same receptor send their fibers to the same two spots among about 1,800 small clusters in the brain's olfactory bulb. Think of a piano with a thousand keys: each odor presses its own chord, and the brain reads which keys were struck. That is how the nose can recognize far more smells than it has receptors. Years earlier, with Michael Wigler and Saul Silverstein, Axel had also helped create a method for putting almost any gene into mammalian cells grown in the lab.[4],[5],[6],[7],[8],[10]

“Our perceptions are not direct recordings of the world around us, rather they are constructed internally according to innate rules.”
Richard Axel, From the introduction to his Nobel lecture on how the brain represents smells, 8 December 2004.[5]

What it meant for humanity

Axel's work changed lives along two main paths. The first came from the gene-transfer method he developed in the late 1970s with Michael Wigler and Saul Silverstein. It let scientists add almost any gene to mammalian cells grown in culture, turning those cells into factories for human proteins. Companies used it to make medicines that bacteria cannot make properly, because many human proteins need finishing touches that only animal cells add. A 2009 study lists drugs made this way: Epogen for anemia, Activase for heart attacks and stroke, clotting factors for hemophilia, Avonex for multiple sclerosis, Cerezyme for Gaucher disease, Pulmozyme for cystic fibrosis, and antibodies such as Humira and Rituxan. Mammalian cells still make most such medicines: 107 of the 159 cell-made biotech drugs approved in the US and Europe from 2018 to mid-2022. In 1986 his lab, working with British and US colleagues, proved that a surface protein called CD4 is enough to let HIV latch onto and enter human cells, confirming 1984 evidence from teams in London and Paris. It also found the CD4 gene active in the brain, which helped explain why the virus reaches the brain as well as the immune system. The second path is understanding. Smell was the first sense decoded mainly with molecular tools, and related receptor families were later found for pheromones and taste. The Nobel committee noted that losing smell is a serious handicap: food loses its flavor and warning signs like smoke go unnoticed. Knowing the receptors gives researchers a place to start. Axel also trained many scientists, including two later Nobel laureates.

  • The cotransformation method he co-developed let drug makers use mammalian cells to produce medicines for anemia, hemophilia, multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, heart attack, stroke and cancer.[10],[13]
  • In 2018 to mid-2022, 107 of 159 cell-made biotech medicines approved in the US and EU were produced in mammalian cells, 95 of them in Chinese hamster ovary cells.[11]
  • In 1986 his lab showed that the T4 (CD4) protein is enough to make human cells open to the AIDS virus, confirming it as the virus's receptor, and that the gene is active in the brain as well as the immune system.[9],[26],[27]
  • His 1991 paper with Linda Buck revealed about 1,000 odorant receptor genes, opening the sense of smell to genetic study for the first time.[4],[6]
  • Linda Buck, his former postdoctoral fellow, shared the 2004 prize with him, and David Julius, once a fellow in his lab, won the 2021 Nobel Prize for temperature and touch receptors.[2],[24],[25]

Impact in numbers

Axel's smell research is mainly a gift of understanding. It explained how a nose with a limited set of receptors can tell apart a vast range of odors, gave neuroscience a clear case of how the brain builds maps of the outside world, and showed that similar receptor families handle pheromones and taste. No published count of patients helped by it exists, so this profile makes no numerical claim for it. His earlier gene-transfer work is different: it became part of how biotech medicines are made in animal cells, and Columbia's royalties from it show how widely industry used it. The two claims below give him a small share of those medicines' sales, because Michael Wigler conceived the method, Saul Silverstein co-invented it, and many others built the cell lines, drugs and factories. His lab's proof that CD4 is HIV's entry receptor shaped AIDS research, but no defensible number can be attached to it.

HealthFundamental scienceEconomy

Each number is the laureate’s credited share of a real-world outcome, cumulative to 2025. The whole outcome, the share of credit, and the reasoning are shown so you can check the arithmetic. Outcomes shared with other laureates are counted once on the impact page.

  • Low confidenceRippleModeledEconomy

    Cumulative global sales of genetically engineered non-antibody protein medicines (a proxy for economic activity)

    $15–20

    billion in economic value, credited share

    That is 1% of $1.5–2 trillion in economic value since 1982.

    How this number was built

    Same outcome and range as the Berg, Kornberg, Nathans and Lederberg profiles: world sales of recombinant non-antibody protein drugs since 1982. 2013 antibody sales ~$75B were about half of biopharma (Ecker 2015); 2021 non-antibody originators $53.6B, biosimilars $11.1B (Walsh 2022). Low: quadratic ramp to $75B over 1982-2013 ($0.81T) + 2014-21 ($0.50T) + flat 2022-25 ($0.21T) = ~$1.5T. High: linear ramp ($1.2T) + same later years + half of biosimilars = ~$2.0T. Nominal sales. Share 0.01 (~$15-20B, about 2% of the mammalian-made part; microbe-made insulin and growth hormone owe nothing to the method): cotransformation let firms make proteins in mammalian cells (67% of cell-made products approved 2018-22, Walsh) and earned $790M in royalties (Milbank). But Wigler conceived it, Silverstein co-invented it, and cell lines and manufacturing were others' work.[10],[11],[12]

    Sources: Milbank Quarterly (via PubMed Central); Nature Biotechnology (via PubMed Central); mAbs (via PubMed Central)

  • Low confidenceRippleModeledEconomy

    Cumulative global sales of monoclonal antibody medicines (a proxy for economic activity)

    $6–7.8

    billion in economic value, credited share

    That is 0.3% of $2–2.6 trillion in economic value since 1986.

    How this number was built

    Same outcome and range as the Milstein profile: cumulative world antibody-drug sales since 1986 of about $2.0-2.6T, built from sourced annual sales of ~$39B (2008) and ~$75B (2013) (Ecker 2015) and $217.3B (2021) (Walsh 2022); that profile shows the arithmetic. Nominal sales, not net benefit. Share 0.003 (~$6-8B): antibodies are mostly made in mammalian cells, with CHO cells used for 89% of mammalian-made products approved 2018-22 (Walsh), and Humira, Rituxan and Avastin are among drugs listed as made with the cotransformation method (Milbank). But the hybridoma method (Milstein and Kohler, 0.15 each), humanization, drug targets and development matter far more, and Wigler and Silverstein co-invented the method.[10],[11],[12]

    Sources: Milbank Quarterly (via PubMed Central); Nature Biotechnology (via PubMed Central); mAbs (via PubMed Central)

The double edge

No harmful use of Axel's smell research is documented. Two controversies touch his career. The first is about money and patents. Columbia patented the gene-transfer method he co-invented, and the university and inventors earned about $790 million in royalties. A 2009 study argued that companies would probably have used the method without patents, and that Columbia's later push to extend its patent rights, including a 2002 patent that a dozen biotech and drug companies challenged in court, was costly and widely criticized as improper for a nonprofit university. The second is personal. Files released in early 2026 showed that Axel had been a frequent guest at Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan home, and that the two corresponded from 2009 to 2019, after Epstein's 2008 conviction. He also acted as a go-between for Epstein with Columbia admissions and fundraising officials. He accepted a 2011 invitation to Epstein's island, but the trip was called off and Columbia says he never went. Axel is not accused of wrongdoing. In February 2026 he stepped down as co-director of Columbia's Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute and resigned as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, calling the association a serious error in judgment.

  • Moderate

    Friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and 2026 resignations

    Released files showed Axel was a frequent guest at Epstein's Manhattan home, corresponded with him from 2009 to 2019, and acted for him with Columbia admissions and fundraising officials. He accepted a 2011 invitation to Epstein's island, but the trip was cancelled and Columbia says he never went. He is not accused of wrongdoing. In February 2026 he left his institute co-directorship and his HHMI post and apologized.[14],[15],[16]

  • Minor

    Columbia's aggressive use of the Axel patents

    The patents earned Columbia and the inventors about $790 million over 17 years. Researchers writing in the Milbank Quarterly argued the method would have spread without patents, and that Columbia's effort to extend its rights, including a 2002 patent that a dozen companies challenged in court, was costly and widely criticized. Columbia later promised not to sue over that patent.[10]

Against the odds

Axel grew up after the worst dangers had passed, but in their shadow. His parents came from Poland; he wrote that their education was disrupted by the Nazi invasion, while a 2005 Columbia profile dates their move to America to 1937, before the war. Either way, they left a community that was about to be destroyed: Poland had about 3.35 million Jews in 1937, and roughly 2.8 to 3 million of them were murdered in the Holocaust. In Brooklyn the family was working class. His father was a tailor, the home had no books, art or music, and the family lived in Crown Heights, then a relatively poor neighborhood. Axel worked from age 11, delivering false teeth to dentists, laying carpets and serving pastrami in a delicatessen, and later waited tables to pay for opera tickets. Elite colleges had long limited Jewish admissions: Columbia, Harvard and Yale began restricting Jewish students in the 1920s and did not admit many more until the 1960s. By the time Axel applied, Columbia offered him a scholarship, though his father would have preferred free City College, the usual path for bright children of Brooklyn immigrants. We found no record of antisemitism he personally faced.

  • 1939

    War

    Axel wrote that the Nazi invasion of Poland disrupted his parents' education; a 2005 Columbia profile says they emigrated in 1937. The Holocaust killed roughly 2.8 to 3 million of Poland's approximately 3.35 million Jews.[2],[13],[20],[21]

  • —

    Poverty

    He grew up in Crown Heights, then a relatively poor part of Brooklyn, the son of a tailor, in a home without books. He worked from age 11 as a messenger, carpet layer and delicatessen waiter.[2],[13]

  • —

    Discrimination

    In the generation before his, Columbia, Harvard and Yale restricted Jewish admissions from the 1920s and did not admit many more Jews until the 1960s. Axel entered Columbia on a scholarship in the 1960s as those barriers were easing.[2],[3],[22]

Jewish background

Both parents JewishRelationship to Jewish identity not documented

Axel was born in Brooklyn in 1946, the first child of immigrant parents from Poland. In his Nobel autobiography he wrote that their education was disrupted by the Nazi invasion of Poland; a 2005 Columbia profile says they came to America in 1937. His father was a tailor. The Jewish Virtual Library says he was born to Jewish parents, and the Encyclopaedia Judaica gives him an entry. Wikipedia describes his parents as Polish Jewish immigrants. In 2016 he spoke at the launch of a large fellowship program linking American and Israeli universities, praising its open scientific exchange. We found no statement by Axel about religious practice or how he sees his own Jewish identity.[2],[13],[17],[18],[19],[23]

Key dates

  1. July 2, 1946

    Born in Brooklyn, New York, the first child of immigrant parents from Poland.[1],[2]

  2. 1963

    Graduates from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan.[2],[19]

  3. 1967

    Earns his bachelor's degree from Columbia University, where a job washing lab glassware drew him to molecular biology.[2],[3]

  4. 1970

    Receives his M.D. from Johns Hopkins on the promise never to practice on live patients.[2],[3],[13]

  5. 1974

    Returns to Columbia as an assistant professor after research training with Sol Spiegelman and at the NIH.[2],[13]

  6. 1979

    With Michael Wigler and Saul Silverstein, reports cotransformation, a way to put virtually any gene into cultured mammalian cells.[8],[10]

  7. 1983

    First Axel patent issues; elected to the US National Academy of Sciences.[3],[10]

  8. 1984

    Becomes a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Columbia.[3]

  9. 1986

    His lab clones the CD4 gene and shows that the CD4 protein lets HIV attach to and infect human cells.[9]

  10. April 5, 1991

    Publishes, with Linda Buck, the discovery of a huge gene family encoding odorant receptors.[4],[6]

  11. 1996

    His lab shows that nerve cells with the same receptor converge on fixed spots in the olfactory bulb, a map of smell.[7]

  12. October 4, 2004

    Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Linda Buck.[1],[4]

  13. February 24, 2026

    Steps down as co-director of Columbia's Zuckerman Institute and as an HHMI investigator over his past association with Jeffrey Epstein.[14],[15]

Sources

  1. 1.Richard Axel - Facts · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
  2. 2.Richard Axel - Biographical · NobelPrize.org (The Nobel Foundation), 2004
  3. 3.Richard Axel - Curriculum Vitae · NobelPrize.org (The Nobel Foundation), 2004
  4. 4.Press release: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2004 · NobelPrize.org (The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet), 2004
  5. 5.Scents and sensibility: a molecular logic of olfactory perception (Nobel Lecture, 8 December 2004) · NobelPrize.org, 2004
  6. 6.A novel multigene family may encode odorant receptors: a molecular basis for odor recognition (Buck L, Axel R), Cell 65:175-187 · Cell (via PubMed), 1991
  7. 7.Visualizing an olfactory sensory map (Mombaerts P et al.), Cell 87:675-686 · Cell (via PubMed), 1996
  8. 8.Transformation of mammalian cells with genes from procaryotes and eucaryotes (Wigler M et al.), Cell 16:777-785 · Cell (via PubMed), 1979
  9. 9.The T4 gene encodes the AIDS virus receptor and is expressed in the immune system and the brain (Maddon PJ et al.), Cell 47:333-348 · Cell (via PubMed), 1986
  10. 10.Columbia University's Axel patents: technology transfer and implications for the Bayh-Dole Act (Colaianni A, Cook-Deegan R), Milbank Quarterly 87(3):683-715 · Milbank Quarterly (via PubMed Central), 2009
  11. 11.Biopharmaceutical benchmarks 2022 (Walsh G, Walsh E), Nature Biotechnology 40:1722-1760 · Nature Biotechnology (via PubMed Central), 2022
  12. 12.The therapeutic monoclonal antibody market (Ecker DM, Jones SD, Levine HL), mAbs 7(1):9-14 · mAbs (via PubMed Central), 2015
  13. 13.Richard Axel: One of the Nobility in Science (Robin Eisner), P&S Journal, Winter 2005 · Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (Internet Archive copy), 2005
  14. 14.Statement from Dr. Richard Axel (24 February 2026) · Columbia University Office of Public Affairs (Internet Archive copy), 2026
  15. 15.Leader of Columbia Brain Institute Quits Over Friendship With Epstein (Sharon Otterman) · The New York Times (Internet Archive copy), 2026
  16. 16.University Professor and Nobel laureate Richard Axel, CC '67, was invited to close friend of 11 years Jeffrey Epstein's island in 2011 (Emily Pickering) · Columbia Daily Spectator, 2026
  17. 17.Richard Axel · Jewish Virtual Library (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise)
  18. 18.Axel, Richard · Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (via Encyclopedia.com), 2007
  19. 19.Richard Axel · Wikipedia
  20. 20.Invasion of Poland, Fall 1939 · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  21. 21.Jewish Losses during the Holocaust: By Country · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  22. 22.How the Ivy League's Jewish quotas shaped higher education (Susan H. Greenberg, interview with Mark Oppenheimer) · Inside Higher Ed, 2022
  23. 23.$100 million to fight Israeli brain drain · Jewish Telegraphic Agency (from The Jewish Week), 2016
  24. 24.Linda B. Buck - Facts · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
  25. 25.David Julius - Facts · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
  26. 26.The CD4 (T4) antigen is an essential component of the receptor for the AIDS retrovirus (Dalgleish AG et al.), Nature 312:763-767 · Nature (via PubMed), 1984
  27. 27.T-lymphocyte T4 molecule behaves as the receptor for human retrovirus LAV (Klatzmann D et al.), Nature 312:767-768 · Nature (via PubMed), 1984

Fact-checked on September 24, 2026 by a separate AI fact-checking pass that re-opened the sources, with 7 corrections made. How we check

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