Nobel Prize Linda B. Buck - Part III

June 14, 2010

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Over the next decade, she remained at Harvard &#&Medical School&#&, gradually rising through the ranks to become associate and then full professor.

In 1994, she met Roger Brent, a marvelous intellect and fellow scientist who has been her partner and an important part of her life ever since.

The discovery of odorant receptors had explained how the olfactory system detects odorants. Her following goal was to learn how signals from those receptors are organized in the brain to generate diverse odor perceptions. In this endeavor she was joined by, at her words, a series of excellent students and postdoctoral fellows. The discoveries on the organization of the olfactory system that were cited by the Nobel Foundation were made over a period of ten years, during which she was a faculty member at Harvard.

She is a Full Member of the Basic Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, an Affiliate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the &#&University of Washington&#&, Seattle.

She was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.

She was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with Richard Axel, for their work on olfactory receptors.

Since Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck published the discovery of odorant receptors in 1991, many laboratories use these receptors in a large scale effort to dissect the mechanisms that underlie the sense of smell and the developmental processes that shape the organization of the olfactory system.

In her fascinating autobiography she says that looking back over her life, she believes she is struck by the good fortune she has had to be scientist, and that there are very few people in this world who have the opportunity to do everyday what they love to do, as she has.

She is especially grateful to her wonderful mentors, colleagues, and students with whom to explore what fascinates her and have enjoyed both challenges and discoveries. And she is now looking forward to learning what Nature will next reveal to us.

As a woman in science, she sincerely hopes that her receiving a Nobel Prize will send a message to young women everywhere that the doors are open to them and that they should follow their dreams.