Nobel Prize for Medicine.

Discovering how we sense heat and touch wins Nobel....

US scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for discovery on receptors for temperature and touch. The duo's research, conducted independently of each other in the late 1990s and 2000s, is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of diseases and conditions, including chronic pain.

David Julius was also the winner of the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in life sciences in 2019.

"Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival and underpins our interactions with the world around us. The groundbreaking discoveries by this year's Nobel Prize laureates have allowed us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive and adapt to the world. 

In our daily lives we take these sensations for granted but how are nerve impulses initiated so that temperature and pressure can be perceived? This question has been solved by this year's Nobel Prize laureates", the Nobel jury said. 

David Julius, 65, was recognised for his research using capsaicin - a compound from chilli peppers that induces a burning sensation -  to identify which nerve sensors in the skin respond to heat. The body generates heat in response to inflammation, so we can protect the affected area and allow it to heal. He had told the Scientific American, in 2019, that he got the idea to study chilli peppers after a visit to the grocery store.

To quote him, "I was looking at these shelves and shelves of basically chilli peppers and extracts (hot sauce) and thinking, this is such an important and such a fun problem to look at. I've really got to get serious about this".

Ardem Patapoutian's pioneering discovery was identifying the class of nerve sensors that respond to touch. "In science many times it's things we take for granted that are of high interest", he added.

Adapted from an article in the NIE.

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