Julius Axelrod—American Biochemist and Nobel Prize Winner

Marc A. Shampo, Ph.D., and Robert A. Kyle, M.D.

American biochemist and pharmacologist Julius Axelrod shared the 1970 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with two physiologists, British Sir Bernard Katz (1911- ) and Swedish Ulf Svante von Euler (1905-1983). The citation was as follows: "for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release, and inactivation." Axelrod's specific contribution was identifying an enzyme that degrades chemical neurotransmitters within the nervous system after they are no longer needed to transmit nerve impulses. He discovered that norepinephrine could be neutralized by an enzyme, catechol-0-methyltransferase, which he isolated and named. The enzyme proved critical to the understanding of the nervous system and is useful in dealing with the effects of certain psychotropic drugs and in research on hypertension and schizophrenia.

Axelrod, son of Jewish parents, was born on May 30,1912, in New York City. He received a B.S. degree in 1933 from the College of the City of New York; he subsequently worked for 2 years as a laboratory assistant in the department of bacteriology at New York University School of Medicine before going to the Laboratory of Industrial Hygiene in 1935. During this time, he continued graduate work and received an M.S. degree from New York University in 1941. From 1935 to 1946, he worked at the Laboratory of Industrial Hygiene.

In 1946, Axelrod joined the research division of the Goldwater Memorial Hospital and remained there until 1949, when he left to become a staff member in the section of chemical pharmacology at the National Heart Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. Meanwhile, he worked on his doctorate, which he received from George Washington University in 1955.

After receiving his Ph.D. degree in chemical pharmacology, Axelrod moved to the newly established National Institute of Mental Health, where he became chief of the pharmacology section of the Laboratory of Clinical Sciences, a position he held until 1984. Since then, he has served as guest researcher at the Laboratory of Cell Biology. During that time, one of the most important aspects of his research focused on psychoactive drugs, which had been discovered in the 1950s—drugs that control the symptoms of the major mental illnesses: schizophrenia, depression, and mania. Axelrod produced numerous publications on the biochemical mechanism of action of drugs and their fate.

Axelrod received many awards and honors and was a member of the most prestigious scientific societies of the world, including the Royal Society of London, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Chemical Society, and the National Academy of Sciences. He received many honorary doctorates, including those from the University of Chicago (1965), the Medical College of Wisconsin (1971), New York University (1971), George Washington University (1971), and the Medical College of Pennsylvania (1974).

Sweden honored Axelrod on a stamp issued in 1984. The stamp illustrates a nerve cell and a sympathetic nerve ending; the names of von Euler, Axelrod, and Katz are included.

Mayo Clin Proc 1994; 69:136 136 © 1994 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research