Honor for Julius and Patapoutian: Nobel Prize in Medicine for two molecular biologists

The two scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian received this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery of the receptors for temperature and touch in the body.

The Nobel Prize for Medicine this year goes to the scientists David Julius (USA) and Ardem Patapoutian, who was born in Lebanon. They are honored for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch in the body, as announced by the Nobel Committee in Stockholm.

The news of his award reached Ardem Patapoutian late at night – he then watched the official announcement while sitting in bed with his son.

The research results of the two scientists will be used to develop treatments for a range of diseases, including chronic pain. The groundbreaking discoveries by this year’s Nobel Prize winners “enabled us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical forces trigger the nerve impulses that enable us to perceive and adapt to the world around us,” the committee said. The researchers used pressure-sensitive cells to discover a new class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs.

Combination of chili peppers used

Julius used capsaicin, a spicy compound made from chili peppers that causes a burning sensation, to identify a sensor in the skin’s nerve endings that is responsive to heat.

Using pressure-sensitive cells, Patapoutian discovered a new class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs. Born in Beirut, he came to Los Angeles as a teenager, currently doing research at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.

Nobel Prize Week has started

The Nobel Prize for Medicine is endowed with around 980,000 euros. Since 1901, 222 people have received the award, including twelve women. The first went to the German bacteriologist Emil Adolf von Behring for the discovery of a therapy against diphtheria. In 1995, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard was the first and so far only German woman to receive this award.

Last year Harvey J. Alter (USA), Michael Houghton (Great Britain) and Charles M. Rice (USA) received the award. They made a major contribution to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. The Nobel Prize is internationally recognized as one of the most important scientific awards.

The week of the Nobel Prizes begins with the announcement of the Nobel Prize for Medicine. The winners of the physics and chemistry prizes will be named on Tuesday and Wednesday. The announcements for the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize will follow on Thursday and Friday. The series ends on the following Monday, October 11th, with the so-called Nobel Prize for Economics donated by the Swedish Reichsbank.