Richard Axel is interested in the neurobiology of olfaction, or the sense of smell. He wants to understand the representation of olfactory information in the brain and the neural mechanisms that translate these representations into appropriate innate and learned behavioral responses. Working in the mouse and Drosophila, Axel and his team seek to genetically and physiologically dissect the sensory coding of odors. Their studies reveal that the anatomic organization and functional logic of olfactory circuits in Drosophila and mammals are remarkably similar, despite the organisms’ evolutionary distance from one another.
The blood-dining insect’s neural circuitry for sniffing out its chosen prey is far more complicated and sophisticated than previously thought. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute announced today that HHMI Trustee David Julius of the University of California, San Francisco, and HHMI Investigator Ardem Patapoutian of Scripps Research are the recipients of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch. HHMI scientists are among ten newly elected foreign members. HHMI researchers Richard Axel and Linda Buck honored with the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for pioneering studies that clarify how the olfactory system works.