Linda Buck
American Biologist who resolved the mystery of how the sense of smell works, by identifying the molecular circuit that connects an odor molecule (e.g. smell from a flower), to the receptors in the nose, to a distinct signal in the brain.
Featuring artwork by Miler Ximeno Lopez & words by Dr. Sumbul Jawed Khan, Sci-Illustrate Stories. Set in motion by Dr. Radhika Patnala.
Smell is one of the four fundamental human senses that we develop from an early age. The sense of smell, or Olfaction, not only helps us in making life decisions but also in avoiding potentially hazardous situations, for instance, just from the smell one can tell whether they like a rose or jasmine flower, or one can identify and avoid rotten food by its smell. Olfaction is a highly sophisticated sense that can identify between numerous types of scents. Scientists have been working hard to understand how it works, as the genes, proteins, or pathways involved in the process remained a mystery.
Through her path breaking work Linda Buck discovered the molecular mechanism of how the sense of smell works in mammals. This was a breakthrough for the entire field of study and scientists started uncovering similar processes in other invertebrate and vertebrate animals, including humans.
Home and early explorations
Linda Brown Buck was born on January 29th, 1947 in Seattle, Washington. Her mother was a homemaker with a passion for puzzle solving and her father an electrical engineer who loved to invent things. She was raised with her two sisters in Seattle. Linda had an exploratory childhood, and her parents encouraged her to be independent and inquisitive. They inspired her to excel in everything and never “settle for something mediocre”.
Becoming a scientist wasn’t something Linda had foreseen. Having a desire to help other people, she initially wanted to be a psychotherapist. Even after joining the closely located University of Washington for undergraduate studies, she intermittently took time-off to find her real interest. But all who wander are not lost!
Finally Linda found her calling in Biology after taking a course in Immunology. Linda graduated with a double major degree in Psychology & Microbiology in 1975.
“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I was filled with angst; I wanted to do something to help other people, but I didn’t want to do an M.D. Then I discovered immunology and I never looked back,”
Discovering research as a true passion during Ph. D.
Linda’s interest in biology took her to Dallas, Texas, where she joined Ellen Vitetta’s lab at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. This was the first time Linda carried out rigorous research and realized that research was her true passion. She graduated in 1980 with Ph. D. in Immunology.
“You don’t want to just do a problem because it’s easy to solve, you want to do something that you’re obsessed with, that you just have to understand, because that’s where the joy comes from, and that also, I think, is where the great discoveries come from, for people are really trying to try to figure out things that they don’t understand.”
Courage and hard work leads to breakthrough research during Postdoc
Linda moved to New York in 1980 to pursue her postdoctoral work from Benvenuto Pernis’s lab in at Columbia University, New York. She began working in immunology but was fascinated by the nervous system and took up a project in Richard Axel’s Lab. She was studying the nervous system in Aplysia, sea snail.
She happened to read an interesting paper by Sol Snyder’s lab in 1985 that discussed the potential mechanism of olfaction. Linda was always inspired by the bigger questions, and decided to focus on olfaction in rats. Although this meant delaying her postdoc training and postponing her job search, but she was courageous enough to take the risk and it paid off.
She worked very hard trying to find the genes that encode the proteins in the nose, which detect the odorant molecules. She would stay late in lab just so that she could utilize all the equipment, and modified the existing experimental methods to come up with a solution. Finally she discovered what would go down in history. She identified the group of receptor proteins expressed specifically in neuronal cells of at the back of the nose and can bind to an odorant molecule.
In 1991 she published the seminal paper with Richard Axel, reporting 1000 Odorant Receptors (OR’s) proteins from rat that belonged to a single gene family (Buck and Axel, 1991). This proved to be the gateway to an outstanding journey of discoveries.
Decoding how olfaction works in her own lab
Linda joined the Harvard Medical School as a professor in 1991 where she continued her research on the circuitry of olfactory system in her own lab for the next 10 years. She was able to map the organization of the olfactory system from the nose to the brain. When an odorant gets attached to the odorant receptors present in the olfactory neurons of the nose, the receptors undergo conformational changes. This leads to the relay of an electrical signal to the brain. A receptor can identify only a small number of odor molecules that results in a specific smell that the brain registers. Thus Linda’s work showed how odors are detected in the nose and then signals travel to the brain to elicit a response.
Her work also showed that humans 350 olfactory receptor, much less than rat or mice (who have 1000 receptors). Each receptor can bind to only single odor molecule, in other words a single receptor can identify a single smell. But then how can the human nose identify more than 10,000 different kinds of smells? Linda’s lab showed that there s a code in play, and different permutation and combination of these receptors are read as distinct signatures in the brain.
Accolades for path-breaking work
Linda returned to hometown Seattle in 2002 and joined Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. This move was meant to bring her back closer to family and friends. Linda married fellow scientist Roger Brent in 2006, who she had known for twelve years. She continues her quest for probing how olfaction affects more complex processes such as of instinctive animal behaviors, of hunger, fear or aggression.
In 2004, Linda received the highest honor for her enormous body of work; she jointly received the Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine with Richard Axel. Numerous awards and honors followed this recognition.
Continuing her quest
Her work is significant as it opened up avenues for further studies in other animals. Since then scientists have identified similar odorant receptor in other vertebrate and invertebrate species that could have significant applications. Today scientists around the world are trying to target the odorant receptors of mosquito species (such as Anopheles gambiae) as treatment against many infectious diseases.
She has mentored many scientists in her lab and champions the cause for increased representation of women in science careers. She is a strong proponent of Basic Sciences & maintains that Translational Science stands on the strong foundations of knowledge built by basic science research. When today most of the funding is diverted to research on diseases and their treatment, Linda explains how basic science provides the framework for clinical discoveries-
“like in many other biological areas, the information that you gain doesn’t have a direct or immediate clinical use, and rather it gives you insight into biological mechanisms which then can be transferred into other areas.”
Timeline:
1947- Born in Seattle, Washington on January 29th
1975- B. Sc. in Psychology and Microbiology from University of Washington, Washington
1980- Ph. D. in Immunology form University of Texas, Dallas, Texas
1980- Started postdoc in Benvenuto Pernis lab at Columbia University, New York
1982- Joined Richard Axel’s lab as a postdoc to work on nervous system of Aplysia
1985- Started working on olfaction after reading Sol Snyder’s paper on odor detection
1991- Published her findings of Odorant Receptor discovery in the journal Cell
1991- Joined Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts as a professor
1994- Became an Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator
2002- Returned to Seattle and joined the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
2003- Inducted in the National Academy of Sciences
2004- Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine along with Richard Axel
2006- Married to fellow scientist Roger Brent
Further Reading:
About the author:
DR. SUMBUL JAWED KHAN
Content Editor,Women In Science, Sci-Illustrate Stories.
Dr. Khan received her Ph. D. in Biological Sciences and Bioengineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, where she studied the role of microenvironment in cancer progression and tumor formation. During her post-doctoral research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Khan investigated the gene regulatory networks that are important for tissue regeneration after damage or wounding. Dr. Khan is committed to science outreach activities, to make scientific research understandable and relatable to the non-scientific community. She believes it is essential to inspire young people to apply scientific methods to tackle the current challenges faced by humanity.
About the artist:
MILER XIMENA LÓPEZ
Contributing Artist Women in Science, Sci-Illustrate stories
Expressing myself graphically has always been a source of great satisfaction for me. With my work, I can provide many things to others in different positive ways, as well as get a lot in return, because in every goal achieved, in every process, there is a lot to learn.
About the series:
Not enough can be said about the amazing Women in Science who did and continue to do their part in moving the world forward.
Every month, through the artwork & words of the Sci-Illustrate team, we will bring to you profiles of women who touched our hearts (and brains) with their scientific works, and of many more who currently hold the flag high in their own fields!
— Dr. Radhika Patnala, Series Director
