Nobel Prize in Medicine: Deciphering the Sense of Touch

The Nobel Prize for Medicine goes to the USA: The scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian played a leading role in deciphering the sense of touch – and thus solved a centuries-old mystery.

This year’s Nobel Prize is a prize for physiology, i.e. for basic research into how our body works. The topic affects each of us every second: Our nerves are constantly aware of temperature and pressure – for example, when we grab a hot coffee cup or walk barefoot through the grass. If the cup is too hot, the hand jerks back; when the foot steps on a stone, we lift it higher.

Search for the transmission of signals in the body

As early as the 17th century, the philosopher Descartes imagined threads that connect different parts of the skin with the brain. A foot that touches an open flame, for example, could transmit a mechanical signal to the brain. Joseph Erlanger and Herbert Gasser were later able to prove this: They received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1944 for their discovery of different types of sensory nerve fibers that respond to different stimuli. But how exactly our body absorbs this information has long been unclear.

Chilli peppers for researching pain perception

David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian have discovered how exactly these external stimuli are converted into electrical impulses by the nerves – and thus solved a centuries-old mystery.

The American David Julius, born in 1955, experimented with capsaicin, a hot substance made from chili peppers, in the late 1990s and discovered TRPV1, a receptor for painful heat, for the first time. His research team was able to identify the right gene from millions of possible candidates by cultivating each of these genes individually in cells that normally do not respond to capsaicin.

In 2010, the researcher Ardem Patapoutian, born in Beirut in 1967, discovered a new class of sensors with the help of pressure-sensitive cells that react to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs. The name of these so-called piezo channels is derived from the Greek word for pressure. He also identified the right gene from a number of possible candidates – but by switching off the genes one by one in the already pressure-sensitive cells.

A basis for further research

With their basic research, the two Nobel Prize winners also paved the way for developing better drugs in the future, for example for chronic pain. In the meantime, many other variants of the receptors have been found that are involved in different bodily processes. For example, the cold receptor TRPM8, which Julius and Patapoutian discovered independently based on their reaction to menthol. Nowadays, research approaches for the treatment of high blood pressure or problems with breathing and urination are based, among other things, on this basic research.

David Julius

David Julius is an American molecular biologist. He was born on November 4, 1955 in New York. In 1977 he received his Bachelor in Life Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. He received his PhD in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984. Since 1990 he has worked as a lecturer at the University of California (UCSF), where he heads the Department of Physiology. Julius is the editor of the renowned annual review of Physiology.

The scientist has already received several awards and prizes for his work. Among other things, in 2019 the “Breakthrough Prize” of the American Institute of Physiology, endowed with three million US dollars. In the same year, he and Ardem Patapoutian won the 49th Rosenstiel Award for his work in basic medical research for fundamental and extensive studies on the molecular mechanisms of touch, temperature and pain. The “Kavli Prize for Neurosciences” followed in 2020 and the “Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology and Biomedicine” in 2021.

Ardem Patapoutian

Ardem Patapoutian is a Lebanese-American molecular biologist and neuroscientist. He was born in 1967 in the Lebanese city of Beirut. Before he emigrated to the United States in 1986, he attended the university in his hometown. In 1990 he earned a bachelor’s degree in cell and developmental biology from the University of California at Los Angeles. His scientific doctoral degree in biology followed in 1996 at the California Institute of Technology. Since receiving this award, he has been working at the “Scripps Research Institute”, where he received a professorship in 2000. Between 2000 and 2014 he also carried out research for the “Novartis research Foundation” and, from 2014, for the “Howard Hughes Medical Institute”.

Ardem Patapoutian is mainly concerned with signal transmission and sensor technology in the human body. His focus is on the conversion of mechanical stimuli such as temperature, touch and pain into biochemical signals. In this research area, he has already made several insightful contributions to the recognition of novel ion channels and receptors.

In 2017 Patapoutian received the “W. Alden Spencer Award”, in 2019 the “Rosenstiel Award”, in 2020 the “Kavli Prize for Neuroscience”, and the “BBVA Fundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award” in biology and biomedicine.

Ardem Patapoutian and his research colleague David Julius discovered human temperature and tactile sensors for the first time. Together they received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2021 for their discovery.

Awards ceremony in December

As in the previous year, the prestigious award is endowed with ten million Swedish kronor (around 980,000 euros) per category. In 2020 the Americans Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice as well as the British Michael Houghton were awarded the prize for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. The Nobel Prizes, which have now been awarded for 120 years, are traditionally presented on December 10th, the anniversary of the death of the founder Alfred Nobel.