Dr Richard Axel, a molecular biologist and Nobel laureate, has announced that he was stepping down as the leader of a prestigious neuroscience institute at Columbia University over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Axel, who has taught at Columbia for 53 years, said in a statement on Tuesday that he would be leaving his post as co-director of the university’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute to “focus on research and teaching in my lab.”

“My past association with Jeffrey Epstein was a serious error in judgment, which I deeply regret. I apologize for compromising the trust of my friends, students, and colleagues,” Axel wrote.

“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 latest publication of the Epstein files, in which more than 3m documents were released relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reveal a multi-year relationship between Axel and the disgraced New York financier.

Publicly released correspondence between Axel and Epstein spans at least nine years, from 2010 to 2019, notably after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Axel’s name appears in the files more than 900 times, as previously reported by the Columbia Spectator.

The files include a 30 December 2011, one-way ticket for Axel and his wife, Cornelia Bargmann, to St Thomas, Virgin Islands, which is typically seen as the usual jumping-off point to reach Epstein’s nearby private island, Little St James, by helicopter.

The ticket was later voided, according to the Columbia Spectator, and a university spokesperson confirmed to the outlet that Axel and his wife never visited Epstein’s island.

In a separate statement made on Tuesday, Columbia University said that the school “has seen no evidence that Dr. Axel violated any University policy or the law”.

The university said that they agreed with Axel’s decision to resign, “while at the same time recognizing his extraordinary contributions to the University and his dedication to his colleagues, to his students, and to science”.

The resignation is the latest as institutions of higher education across the country grapple with the fallout of the Epstein files. Epstein wielded his money and influence across various industries, but he had a strong interest in academia, maintaining decades-long relationships with board members, professors and administrators everywhere from Harvard to the University of California, Los Angeles to Ohio State University.

Axel won the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine in 2004 alongside Linda B Buck, for their research identifying genes that allow humans to detect more than 10,000 different smells.

In his statement, Axel also announced that he would be stepping down as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a prestigious biomedical research organization.