Nobel Prize-winning Columbia University neuroscientist resigns from some posts over Epstein ties

Nobel Prize-winning Columbia University neuroscientist Dr. Richard Axel has resigned from some of his posts over his ties to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Axel, 79, won a Nobel Prize in 2004 for discovering over 1,000 special receptors in the nose that send olfactory information to the brain, The Hill news outlet reported. 

He announced Tuesday that he is resigning from his positions as co-director of the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute and as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Axel will continue research and teaching at Columbia, where he has been a professor for over 50 years.

"My past association with Jeffrey Epstein was a serious error in judgment, which I deeply regret," Axel said in a statement.

"I apologize for compromising the trust of my friends, students, and colleagues. I recognize the problems this has caused, and I will work to restore this trust. What has emerged about Epstein’s appalling conduct, the harm that he has caused to so many people, makes my association with him all the more painful and inexcusable."

The Justice Department's files on Epstein released last month show that Axel was friends with him, going to the disgraced financier's home in Manhattan multiple times and helping him with connections to Columbia University officials, The New York Times reported. 

"The University has seen no evidence that Dr. Axel violated any University policy or the law," Columbia said in a statement on Tuesday.

"However, Dr. Axel made clear that in light of this past association, and the continued fallout from the release of DOJ files, he felt it appropriate to relinquish his position as co-director. The University agrees with this decision, while at the same time recognizing his extraordinary contributions to the University and his dedication to his colleagues, to his students, and to science."