Recently, two United States-based scientists, David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, have been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch. The two scientists independently discovered key mechanisms of how people sense heat, cold, touch and their own bodily movements.
About the Discoveries
David Julius
David Julius is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco
He discovered TRPV1, a heat-sensing receptor.
His findings on the skin’s sense of temperature was based on how certain cells react to capsaicin, the molecule that makes chili peppers spicy, by simulating a false sensation of heat.
Ardem Patapoutian
Ardem Patapoutian is a molecular biologist and neuroscientist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.
He discovered two mechanosensitive ion channels known as the Piezo channels.
The Piezo1 is named after the Greek word pesi, which means pressure.
He is credited for finding the cellular mechanism and the underlying gene that translates a mechanical force on our skin into an electric nerve signal.
Dr. Patapoutian led a team that, by poking individual cells with a tiny pipette, hit upon a receptor that responds to pressure, touch and the positioning of body parts.
Significance of Discoveries
They have focused their work on the field of somatosensation, that is the ability of specialised organs such as eyes, ears and skin to see, hear and feel.
The findings have given a better understanding of how heat, cold, and mechanical force can trigger nerve impulses that allow us to sense and adapt to our surroundings.
This knowledge is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of disease conditions, including chronic pain.
Prize
The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million) which will be split between both the winners. The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.
About Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize is an international award and is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden.
The award was established on the will of the Swedish scientist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel.
Emil Adolf von Behring, a German scientist, received the first prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901.
The award is announced every year in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Peace, Literature and Economics.
The first five prizes were first awarded in 1901, while the Prize in Economic Sciences was first awarded in 1969.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.
Last year’s prize went to three scientists who discovered the liver-ravaging Hepatitis C virus, a breakthrough that led to cures for the deadly disease and tests to keep the scourge from spreading through blood banks.
Other fields in which the Nobel Prize 2021 will be given in the coming days over a span of a week include the fields of physics, chemistry, literature and peace and economics. Stay tuned for all the updates!
