American scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian were honoured with the 2021 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their “discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch. An official statement by the Nobel jury said that the “groundbreaking discoveries” have paved the way for understanding how “heat, cold and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive and adapt to the world.”
The research by the pair from California is being used to develop treatments for a host of ailments and conditions, including chronic pain, AFP reported. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that Julius and Patapoutian spotted the missing links that aid in understanding the interplay between senses and the environment, Bloomberg reported.
Notably, the Nobel Prize in Medicine is awarded by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute in the capital city of Stockholm. The award is worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.15 million).
Knowing the winners – David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian
Julius is a professor at San Francisco’s University of California, while Patapoutian is a molecular biologist and neuroscientist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.
Following the break of the news, Julius – who is not a newcomer when it comes to winning awards as he won the $3-million worth Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2019, said he was stunned to receive the call from the Nobel committee early Monday. “One never really expects that to happen…I thought it was a prank,” AFP reported him saying to Swedish Radio.
The Nobel Foundation also posted a picture of Julius with his wife Holly Ingraham celebrating his win with a “cup of early morning coffee.”
The committee also posted a picture of Patapoutian alongside his son Luca, watching the Nobel Prize press conference shortly after finding out the former won the prize in medicine.
“This country (USA) gave me a chance with a great education and support for basic research,” Patapoutian replied to the tweet by the Nobel committee, adding that Monday has been a “day to be thankful” for.
The Nobel Prize is the latest feather in the cap for both Julius and Patapoutian for their research on the discoveries of receptors of temperature and touch. The duo has already bagged the Kavli Prize 2020 prize in the neuroscience category, which is worth $3million dollar, and is organised in partnership among the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research and the Kavli Foundation. The award show is celebrated in Oslo, Norway and is presided over by the Norwegian Royal Family, according to information available on the Kavli Prize website.
Furthermore, Julius and Patapoutian have also won the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) Foundation’s Frontiers of Knowledge Award for similar work. The Foundation recognised their work on “identifying the sensors that enable us to feel pain, temperature and pressure,” according to an official statement posted on the website of the BBVA Foundation.
The BBVA Foundation is headquartered in Spain’s Bilbao.
Using kitchen ingredients for research
For the research, Julius used capsaicin – a pungent element from chili peppers, which stimulates a burning sensation to identify a sensor in the nerve endings of the skin that triggers response to heat. Meanwhile, Patapoutian used “pressure-sensitive cells to discover a novel class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs,” a press release issued by the Nobel committee read.
According to the AFP report, Julius told Scientific American – a magazine, in 2019 that he conceived the idea to study chili peppers following a trip to the grocery store. “I was looking at these shelves and shelves of basically chili peppers and extracts (hot sauce) and thinking, ‘This is such an important and such a fun problem to look at’,” he had told the magazine.
Patapoutian’s research was more inclined towards recognising the class of nerve sensors that respond to touch. Patapoutian’s pioneering discovery was identifying the class of nerve sensors that respond to touch.
Julius, a professor at the University of California in San Francisco and the 12-year-younger Patapoutian, a professor at Scripps Research in California, will share the Nobel Prize cheque for 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million, one million euros).
The pair were not among the frontrunners mentioned in the speculation ahead of the announcement.
Pioneers of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which paved the way for mRNA Covid vaccines, and immune system researchers had been widely tipped as favourites.
Julius and Patapoutian’s joint Nobel Prize win wasn’t expected
The American scientists, whose win comes at the backdrop of the ongoing coronavirus disease (Covid-19), wasn’t reportedly the front-runner for the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. According to AFP, pioneers of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which resulted in several mRNA Covid-19 vaccines such as Pfizer-BioNTech, and Moderna, among others, along with immune system researchers were considered as the favourites to win the coveted prize.
The 2020 prize was awarded to three virologists for their discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.