Axelrod, Julius (1912-2004), an American biochemist, shared the 1970 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Bernard Katz from the United Kingdom and Ulf Svante von Euler from Sweden. The three scientists were honored for their independent studies of neurotransmitters, chemicals that carry nerve impulses from cell to cell. Axelrod studied the role of two enzymes that break down chemical neurotransmitters once they are no longer needed to transmit nerve impulses. An enzyme is a molecule that speeds up chemical reactions in living organisms. See Enzyme .
Axelrod’s principal field of research was the chemistry of the nervous system, and in particular of the neurotransmitter hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine. He investigated the relationship between abnormalities in these hormones and schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder. Axelrod discovered that norepinephrine, a substance that transmits nerve impulses, could be neutralized by an enzyme that he called catechol-o-methyl transferase (COMT). This enzyme proved useful to scientists researching schizophrenia, as well as hypertension (high blood pressure). Axelrod’s work in this field encouraged much research into the possible links between brain chemistry and psychiatric diseases and the development of drugs to control psychological disorders.
Julius Axelrod was born on May 30, 1912, in New York City. He obtained a B.Sc. degree at City College of New York in 1933. That same year, he started research work at New York University, gaining an M.A. in 1941 and then received a Ph.D. from George Washington University in 1955. Starting in 1950, he held a number of positions at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He retired from the NIH in 1984. Axelrod died on Dec. 29, 2004.
