Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Awarded to Pain and Sensory Researchers Julius and Patapoutian
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet announced on October 4 that it awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to David Julius, PhD, and Ardem Patapoutian, PhD, for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.
"Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival and underpins our interaction with the world around us," read the announcement and press release from the Nobel Assembly. "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."
Julius is Professor and Chair of Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco. In his research, Julius used capsaicin from chili peppers to identify a sensor in the nerve endings of the skin that responds to heat. His laboratory also studied how menthol, the cooling agent in mint leaves, evokes a cooling sensation.
The Julius Lab website further explains: "Using these and other agents as pharmacological probes, we have identified ion channels on sensory nerve fibers that are activated by heat, cold, or chemical irritants, providing molecular insight into the process of thermosensation, pain, and itch. With the aid of genetic, electrophysiological, structural, and behavioral methods, we are asking how these ion channels are modulated in response to tumor growth, infection, or other forms of injury that produce inflammation and pain hypersensitivity. These basic scientific studies are helping to lay a foundation for the discovery and development of novel analgesic drugs."
Patapoutian, a molecular biologist, is Professor of Neuroscience and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. Patapoutian used pressure-sensitive cells to discover a novel class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs.
The Patapoutian Lab website explains that "the sensitization of touch neurons in response to injury and inflammation is the basis for many clinically-relevant chronic pain states. The molecules that mediate detection of touch stimuli have been a long-standing mystery. Our lab has identified and characterized ion channels activated by distinct changes in thermal energy (in the noxious to innocuous range), thus functioning as the molecular thermometers of our body. A subset of these same ion channels also act as polymodal chemosensors, playing an essential role in pain and inflammation. Small molecule antagonists of TRPA1, one of the ion channels identified in the Patapoutian lab, are currently in phase I clinical studies."
The Nobel Assembly wrote that Julius's and Patapoutian's "breakthrough discoveries launched intense research activities leading to a rapid increase in our understanding of how our nervous system senses heat, cold, and mechanical stimuli. The laureates identified critical missing links in our understanding of the complex interplay between our senses and the environment."