For this article, Steve Bunk interviewed David J. Julius, assistant professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco. Data from the Web of Science (ISI, Philadelphia) show that this paper has been cited significantly more often than the average paper of the same type and age.

M.J. Caterina, M.A. Schumacher, M. Tominaga, T.A. Rosen, J.D. Levin, D. Julius, "The capsaicin receptor: a heat-activated ion channel in the pain pathway," Nature, 389:816-24, Oct. 23, 1997. (Cited in about 215 papers since publication)

"Where does it hurt?" the doctor asks, and it's a useful question. But when the search for pain narrows to the cellular and molecular levels, not much can be found yet. "One of the questions in the pain field has been to what extent is pain like other sensory modalities, with respect to ... sensitivity," remarks this paper's senior author, David Julius. Receptors, for example,...

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