Linda B. Buck

Linda Diane Brown Buck ( born January 29, 1947 in Seattle, Washington) is an American neurophysiologist. For the study of the olfactory system was awarded in 2004 with Richard Axel received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Since 2003, Buck is a professor of physiology at the University of Washington in Seattle. She is a member of the Basic Sciences Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Previously, she was a professor at Harvard Medical School.

In 1991, she discovered along with Richard Axel, how humans and animals are able to perceive thousands of different taste and odor compounds and differentiate. Furthermore, it provided the basis for the molecular genetic study of the sense of smell. In this way, insights could be created, such as the sensory perception of odors and their conversion into nerve impulses and finally feeling responses in the brain is going on.

Even as a postdoc with Richard Axel discovered the genes that contain the templates for the receptors of smell.

Work

The research of Linda Buck deals with the question of how stimuli are transmitted to the brain. It focuses, along with Richard Axel, to the area of the olfactory stimuli, ie the processing of olfactory stimuli. It examines the emergence and development of odorant receptors and the processing of olfactory stimuli in the brain and their conversion into reactions, thoughts and behavior.

The working group was able to identify a gene family of about 1,000 genes that are associated with the perception of smell by encoding different odorant receptors. All of these receptors lie in the olfactory mucosa and nerve are directly connected to the olfactory bulb, which is the brain region that is responsible for the perception of smells. This region leads the impressions on the one further to the cerebral cortex where they are for thinking processes available, on the other hand also to the limbic system, which mainly unconsciously influenced feelings and moods.

Through independent studies Axel and Buck were able to show that each neuron activates only one receptor type and that in the olfactory mucosa, the same structure receptors are distributed in a random pattern in the olfactory bulb, however, all are perceived in the same region. In this way, the brain a composite odor sensation from different areas of the mucous membranes.

In addition to these works, her work deals with the study of aging and the genetic influence on the life span of the example of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

2008 and 2010 Buck withdrew three essays after she and her staff could not reproduce the results of a former working group member. The awarding of the Nobel Prize was based on other work.

Appreciation

  • 2002 Perl -UNC Neuroscience Prize
  • 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • 2003 Gairdner Foundation International Award
  • Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for outstanding work on basic medical
  • Unilever Science Award
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