ABOVE: David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian
© NIKLAS ELMEHED © NOBEL PRIZE OUTREACH
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to David Julius of the University of California, San Francisco, and Ardem Patapoutian of Scripps Research Institute, the Nobel Assembly announced today. The prize recognizes discoveries by the winners of receptors that allow perception of temperature, pressure, and pain.
“Their collective discoveries explain how we feel the warm sun, a cool breeze and [a] loved ones touch,” writes Alexander Chesler, an NIH investigator who completed his postdoc with Julius, in a Twitter message to The Scientist. “They provide us with the details about how we detect dangerous stimuli. These discoveries completely changed the fields of somatosensation and pain.”
“These are fundamental discoveries in the field of physiology and it will be the beginning of a new era where we can identify drugs active in those channels,” says Eric Honore, ...
