University of Washington
Physiology and Biophysics
Affiliate Professor
Temas de Investigación : Dr. Linda Buck is one of the world’s leading researchers on sensory perception.
With a combination of gene-hunting and brain-visualization techniques, Buck’s research illuminates the nervous system pathways that might begin with a whiff of pasta, for example, and end with an uncontrollable response like salivation. Recently, her lab expanded its focus to include studies on the perception of taste and the detection of pheromones, chemical signals released by animals that elicit instinctive behaviors.
More than a decade ago, Buck was the first to identify the genes containing the blueprints for the olfactory receptors.
One of Buck’s key discoveries was that perception of smell relies on a combinatorial code requiring multiple receptors to sense a particular odor. This mix-and-match system enables humans to detect far more scents than they have types of receptors.
Premios y distincciones : 1992 : The Takasago Award for Research in Olfaction
1995 : Distinguished Alumnus, Graduate School, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
1996 : The Unilever Science Award
1996 : The R.H. Wright Award in Olfactory Research
1997 : The Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research
1999 : NIH Director's Lecture, National Institute of Health
1999 : Ulf von Euler Lecture, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
2002 : Fellow, the American Association for the Advancement of Science
2003 : The Perl/UNC Neuroscience Prize
2003 : Member, the National Academy of Sciences
2003 : Gairdner Foundation International Award
2004 : Nobel Prize in Medicine, jointly with Dr. Axel
Selección de Publicaciones : Malnic B, Godfrey PA, and Buck LB. The human olfactory receptor gene family. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA). in press, 2004.
Godfrey PA, Malnic B, and Buck LB. The mouse olfactory receptor gene family. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA). in press, 2004.
Ranganathan R and Buck LB. Olfactory axon pathfinding: who is the pied piper?. Neuron. 35, 599-600. 2002.
Zou Z, Horowitz LF, Montmayeur JP, Snapper S, Buck LB. Genetic tracing reveals a stereotyped sensory map in the olfactory cortex. Nature. 414(6860), 173-9. Nov 2001.
Sam M, Vora S, Malnic B, Ma W, Novotny MV, Buck LB. Neuropharmacology. Odorants may arouse instinctive behaviours. Nature. 412(6843), 142. Jul 2001.
Montmayeur JP, Liberles SD, Matsunami H, Buck LB. A candidate taste receptor gene near a sweet taste locus. Nature Neuroscience. 4(5), 492-8. May 2001.
Matsunami H, Montmayeur JP, Buck LB. A family of candidate taste receptors in human and mouse. Nature. 404(6778), 601-4. Apr 2000.
Buck LB. The molecular architecture of odor and pheromone sensing in mammals. Cell. 100(6), 611-8. Mar 2000.
Malnic B, Hirono J, Sato T, Buck LB. Combinatorial receptor codes for odors. Cell. 96(5), 713-23. Mar 1999.
Horowitz LF, Montmayeur JP, Echelard Y, Buck LB. A genetic approach to trace neural circuits. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). 96(6), 3194-9. Mar 1999.
Matsunami H, Buck LB. A multigene family encoding a diverse array of putative pheromone receptors in mammals. Cell. 90(4), 775-84. Aug 1997.
Berghard A, Buck LB, Liman ER. Evidence for distinct signaling mechanisms in two mammalian olfactory sense organs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). 93(6), 2365-9. Mar 1996.
Berghard A, Buck LB. Sensory transduction in vomeronasal neurons: evidence for G alpha o, G alpha i2, and adenylyl cyclase II as major components of a pheromone signaling cascade. The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience.. 16(3), 909-18. Feb 1996.
Sullivan SL, Adamson MC, Ressler KJ, Kozak CA, Buck LB. The chromosomal distribution of mouse odorant receptor genes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). 93(2), 884-8. Jan 1996.
Buck LB. Information coding in the mammalian olfactory system. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia On Quantitative Biology. 61, 147-55. 1996.
Buck LB. Information coding in the vertebrate olfactory system. Annual Review of Neuroscience. 19, 517-44. 1996.
Buck LB. Unraveling chemosensory diversity. Cell. 83(3), 349-52. Nov 1995.
Sullivan SL, Bohm S, Ressler KJ, Horowitz LF, Buck LB. Target-independent pattern specification in the olfactory epithelium. Neuron. 15(4), 779-89. Oct 1995.
Sullivan SL, Ressler KJ, Buck LB. Spatial patterning and information coding in the olfactory system. Current Opinion in Genetics & Development. 5(4), 516-23. Aug 1995.
Ressler KJ, Sullivan SL, Buck LB. Information coding in the olfactory system: evidence for a stereotyped and highly organized epitope map in the olfactory bulb. Cell. 79(7), 1245-55. Dec 1994.
Liman ER, Buck LB. A second subunit of the olfactory cyclic nucleotide-gated channel confers high sensitivity to cAMP. Neuron. 13(3), 611-21. Sep 1994.
Ressler KJ, Sullivan SL, Buck LB. A molecular dissection of spatial patterning in the olfactory system. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 4(4), 588-96. Aug 1994.
Ressler KJ, Sullivan SL, Buck LB. A zonal organization of odorant receptor gene expression in the olfactory epithelium. Cell. 73(3), 597-609. May 1993.
Ngai J, Dowling MM, Buck L, Axel R, Chess A. The family of genes encoding odorant receptors in the channel catfish. Cell. 72(5), 657-66. Mar 1993.
Buck LB. The olfactory multigene family. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 2(3), 282-8. Jun 1992.
Buck LB. The olfactory multigene family. Current Opinion in Genetics & Development. 2(3), 467-73. Jun 1992.
Buck L, Axel R. A novel multigene family may encode odorant receptors: a molecular basis for odor recognition. Cell. 65(1), 175-87. Apr 1991.
Hynes MA, Gitt M, Barondes SH, Jessell TM, Buck LB. Selective expression of an endogenous lactose-binding lectin gene in subsets of central and peripheral neurons. The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience.. 10(3), 1004-13. Mar 1990.
Weber DA, Buck LB, Delohery TM, Agostino N, Pernis B. Class II MHC molecules are spontaneously internalized in acidic endosomes by activated B cells. The Journal of Molecular and Cellular Immunology : Jmci. 4(5), 255-66; discussion 2. 1990.
Weiss KR, Bayley H, Lloyd PE, Tenenbaum R, Kolks MA, Buck L, Cropper EC, Rosen SC, Kupfermann I. Purification and sequencing of neuropeptides contained in neuron R15 of Aplysia californica. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). 86(8), 2913-7. Apr 1989.
Buck LB, Bigelow JM, Axel R. Alternative splicing in individual Aplysia neurons generates neuropeptide diversity. Cell. 51(1), 127-33. Oct 1987.
Buck L, Stein R, Palazzolo M, Anderson DJ, Axel R. Gene expression and the diversity of identified neurons. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia On Quantitative Biology. 48 Pt 2, 485-92. 1983.
Buck LB, Yuan D, Vitetta ES. A dichotomy between the expression of IgD on B cells and its requirement for triggering such cells with two T-independent antigens. 149(4), 987-92. Apr 1979.
BUCK, LINDA B. 