Source: Reuters
Two American scientists were awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Medicine, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciencesannounce today.
David Julius and Ardem Pataputian were honored for their research of temperature and touch receptors in the nervous system and how it senses heat, cold and mechanical stimuli.
According to the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, their findings "have allowed us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive and adapt to the world around us. This knowledge is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of disease conditions, including chronic pain."
The discovery could pave the way for new painkillers.
Patapoutian, who was born in 1967 to Armenian parents in Lebanon and moved to Los Angeles in his youth, is a Professor at Scripps Research, La Jolla, California, having previously done research at the University of California, San Francisco, and California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
He is credited for finding the celular mechanism and the underlying gene that translates a mechanical force on our skin into an electric nerve signal.
New York-born Julius, 65, is a Professor at University of California, San Francisco, after earlier work at Columbia University, in New York.
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.
The 2021 laureates were caught off guard, according to the committee. But they were extremely happy.
The accolade is accompanied by a cash prize of 10 million Swedish kronor (985,000 euros).
[With information from Reuters]
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