Richard Axel

See also Wikipedia's article about "Richard Axel".

Richard Axel, CC '67, is a University Professor officially affiliated with the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He discovered a technique of cotransformation, a process which allows foreign DNA to be inserted into a host cell to produce certain proteins. Patents were filed. These are are known as the "Axel patents". They are used by many pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and have made a pile of money for Columbia. At one point, the university made around $100m per year from the patents. The patents finally expired in August 2000. Boo.

Axel won a Nobel Prize in 2004. He will be one of the heads of the Jerome L. Greene Science Center.