US scientists bag Nobel for medicine
MIL, Oct 5, 2004. MIL
Two US scientists, Richard Axel, 58, of Columbia University in New York, and Linda B. Buck, 57, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle bagged the coveted Nobel Prize for medicine October 4 for revealing odor-sensing proteins in the nose and mapping how they communicated with the brain.
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm said it chose the pair for the $1.3 million prize because they made possible understanding of "the most puzzling of our senses." To single-handedly track one of the major human senses is quite novel in the history of science, Nobel assembly chairman Goeran Hansson said.
In 1991, the Nobel laureates reportedly discovered a long pedigree of genes capable of producing different odor-sensing proteins, called receptors, in the nose. Before that, scientists relied on guess work as to how many different receptors were needed to sense different smells in the environment.
Scientists now know that people have 350 to 400 types of odor receptors, each of which can detect only a limited number of odors.
The award for medicine triggers off a series of Nobel Prizes that would conclude on October 11 with the prize for economics. The peace prize, the only one bestowed in Norway, will be announced Friday.
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