Americans David Julius, Ardem Patapoutian win Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

By Dilan Pamuk

ANKARA (AA) - American scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.”

The announcement came from Secretary-General for the Nobel Assembly and Nobel Committee Thomas Perlmann at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

A statement by the assembly said the laureates came up with “breakthrough discoveries” as to how nerve impulses are initiated so that temperature and pressure can be perceived.

"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," said the statement.

It added that "Ardem Patapoutian used pressure-sensitive cells to discover a novel class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs."

The discoveries gave start to intense research activities that led to a rapid increase in the understanding of how the nervous system senses heat, cold, and mechanical stimuli, the statement said.

“The laureates identified critical missing links in our understanding of the complex interplay between our senses and the environment,” it added.

The statement said that Julius and Patapoutian jointly answered “a fundamental unsolved question” as to how temperature and mechanical stimuli are “converted into electrical impulses in the nervous system.

Nobel Prizes in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economic sciences are expected to be presented to the winners by Oct. 11.

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice from the US, and Michael Houghton from the UK "for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus."