Nobel Prize for smell research

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Nobel Laureates

Does anyone know anything about the Nobel prize that I heard was recently

awarded to two peopl for their work on smell?

Jan Young

P.S.

Here is what I got from a Google search:

Article Last Updated: 10/05/2004 01:31:34 AM

Two Nobel science laureates win by a nose

The Associated Press

 

 

 

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - American researchers Richard Axel and Linda Buck shared

the 2004 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine on 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.

They discovered genes that give rise to a huge variety of ''receptor''

proteins that sense particular odors. These proteins are found in cells in the

nose, which communicate with the brain.

Axel, 58, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Columbia University in

New York, shared the prize with Buck, 57, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer

Research Center in Seattle.

They reported the gene discoveries jointly in 1991 and have since worked

independently shedding further light on the olfactory system.

The Nobel assembly 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.''

Told of his honor, 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 did not immediately return a call to the cancer center, but center

spokeswoman Susan Edmonds said, ''How wonderful! That's exciting.''