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Linda Buck Facts & Worksheets

Linda B. Buck was born in Seattle, Washington, USA, on January 29, 1947. She and Richard Axel were awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research on olfactory receptors.

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Linda B. Buck was born in Seattle, Washington, USA, on January 29, 1947. She and Richard Axel were awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research on olfactory receptors. She is currently working at the Seattle Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

See the fact file below for more information on the Linda Buck or alternatively, you can download our 20-page Linda Buck worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

PERSONAL LIFE & EDUCATION

  • Linda’s father was an electrical engineer inventor, while her mother enjoyed solving all sorts of puzzles. Linda Buck believes the inventiveness of her father and the love of problem-solving from her mother led to her own enthusiasm for science. Both of her parents encouraged her to think independently and told her that she was capable of doing everything she set out to do in life.
  • In 1975, Buck received her B.S. in both microbiology and psychology from the University of Washington. She later received a Ph.D. in immunology from the Southwestern Medical Center at the University of Texas in 1980.

CAREER & RESEARCH

  • In 1980, Under Dr. Benvenuto Pernis, Buck started postdoctoral work at Columbia University. She first worked in Dr. Richard Axel’s laboratory at Columbia University in New York City in 1982.
  • Buck held various positions between 1984 and 2002 at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and the Harvard Medical School.
  • Buck and Axel jointly published a seminal scientific paper in 1991. It was based on work they had carried out with laboratory rats, detailing their discovery of the 1,000 gene family that encodes, or produces, an equal number of olfactory receptors.
  • These receptors are proteins that are responsible for detecting the odorant molecules in the air, and they are located on olfactory receptor cells that are clustered in the back of the nasal cavity within a small region.
  • The two scientists explained how the olfactory system works by demonstrating that each receptor cell has only one type of odor receptor that is specialized in detecting a few odors.
  • The receptor cells transmit electrical signals to the olfactory bulb in the brain after odorous molecules bind to receptors. The brain integrates information in complex patterns from many receptor types, which are perceived as distinct odors.
  • Axel and Buck later found that most of the information they learned about the sense of smell are similar in rats, humans, and other species, although they discovered that humans only have about 350 types of functioning olfactory receptors, which is about one-third of the number in rats.
  • Nonetheless, the genes that encode human olfactory receptors account for around 3% of all human genes.
  • The study helped boost scientific interest in the potential presence of human pheromones, which are odorous substances known to cause sexual activity and many other behaviors in many species. Buck’s HHMI laboratory researched how to turn odor impressions into emotional responses and instinctive behavior.

NOBEL PRIZE

  • In 1991, in her seminal paper published with Richard Axel, Linda Buck discovered hundreds of gene codes for the odorant receptors found in our noses’ olfactory neurons.
  • Each receptor is a protein that changes when an odor binds to the receptor, resulting in the transmission of an electrical signal to the brain.
  • Differences between the odorant receptors mean that a certain receptor releases a signal from certain odors.
  • Various signals from our receptors can then be perceived as different scents. To do so, Buck and Axel cloned olfactory receptors, indicating they belong to the G protein-coupled receptor family.
  • By researching rat DNA, they discovered that there were around 1,000 different genes for olfactory receptors in the mammalian genome.
  • This work paved the way for the genetic and molecular study of olfactory mechanisms.
  • Buck and Axel have shown in their later work that each olfactory receptor neuron surprisingly expresses only one kind of olfactory receptor protein. The feedback from all neurons expressing the same receptor is received by a single dedicated olfactory bulb glomerulus.

AWARDS AND HONORS

  • Buck won the Takasago Award for Research in Olfaction (1992), Unilever Award for Science (1996), R.H. Wright Award in Olfactory Research (1996), Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Outstanding Work in Basic Medical Research (1996), Perl / UNC Neuroscience Prize (2002), and the International Gairdner Foundation Award (2003).
  • In 2003, Buck was admitted to the National Academy of Sciences and to the Institutes of Medicine in 2006. Since 2008, Buck has been a fellow of the American Association for Science Advancement and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  • She also sits on the Life Science and Medicine Selection Committee, which selects Shaw Prize winners. In 2015, Harvard University awarded Buck an honorary doctorate, and she was elected a Royal Society International Member (ForMemRS).

Linda Buck Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Linda Buck across 20 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Linda Buck worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Linda B. Buck who was born in Seattle, Washington, USA, on January 29, 1947. She and Richard Axel were awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research on olfactory receptors. She is currently working at the Seattle Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Linda Buck Facts
  • Timeline of History
  • Profile Page
  • Olfactory System
  • Smell of Success
  • Impact Made
  • Question Addressed
  • Awards and Honors
  • Fact or Bluff
  • Words of Victory
  • Give Me Five

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