Julius Axelrod

Axelrod discovered that after a neurotransmitter like norepinephrine is released at a nerve terminal, it is not simply broken down but is actively pumped back into the presynaptic nerve ending through a process called reuptake. This mechanism turned out to be the primary way nerve signals are terminated, and blocking reuptake became a major pharmacological strategy for treating depression and anxiety.

Axelrod's finding that neurotransmitters are recycled via reuptake transporters led directly to the development of drugs that block these transporters to keep neurotransmitters active longer in the synaptic cleft. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), including fluoxetine (Prozac), were developed based on this principle, becoming among the most widely prescribed psychiatric medications in the world.

Axelrod shared the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with the British pharmacologist Sir Bernard Katz and the Swedish physiologist Ulf von Euler. All three were recognized for their discoveries concerning the storage, release, and inactivation of neurotransmitter substances at nerve terminals.

Axelrod spent most of his career at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, joining the National Heart Institute and later the National Institute of Mental Health. He worked at NIH from the 1950s until his retirement, making it one of the premier laboratories in neuropharmacology.