Two American scientists, Mr. David Julius and Mr. Ardem Patapoutian are announced as the 2021 Nobel Prize winners in physiology or medicine for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.
On the 4th of October, the Nobel Assembly announced the awardees for physiology/medicine and said, “Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival and underpins our interaction with the world around us. In our daily lives we take these sensations for granted, but how are nerve impulses initiated so that temperature and pressure can be perceived? This question has been solved by this year’s Nobel Prize laureates.”
The first Nobel Prize announcement of 2021 was made by a Nobel Panel at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
Mr. David Julius is a professor at the University of California in San Francisco and Mr. Ardem Patapoutian, a professor at Scripps Research in California. The invention of Mr. David and Mr. Ardem would make knowing the temperature of touch and sensation possible.
Highlighting how these two scientists made this unique discovery possible, Mr. David Julius utilized capsaicin, a pungent compound from chili peppers that induces a burning sensation, to identify a sensor in the nerve endings of the skin that responds to heat. Adding to it, Mr. Ardem Patapoutian used pressure sensitive cells to discover a novel class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs. Later, they started intense research activities of how our nervous system senses heat, cold, and mechanical stimuli.
The winners of the prestigious award would get a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million.) David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian would share the prize money.
With this, the Nobel Prize 2021 week started and the other prizes in the fields of Chemistry, Literature, Peace and Economics are yet to be announced.
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