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October 4, 2021
The US scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday for their discoveries about receptors for temperature and touch.
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« The groundbreaking discoveries … of this year’s Nobel Prize winners have enabled us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical force can trigger the nerve impulses that enable us to perceive the world and adapt to it, » said the Nobel Jury.
The couple’s research will be used to develop treatments for a variety of diseases and conditions, including chronic pain.
Julius, who won the 2019 $ 3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences won, said he was stunned when he got the call from the Nobel Committee early Monday.
« You never really expect that to happen … I thought it was a prank, » he told the Swedish Radio.
Meanwhile, the Nobel Foundation posted a picture of Patapoutian next to his son Luca after hearing the good news.
Our ability to feel warmth, cold and touch is vital, Nobelko explained mitee and underpins our interaction with the world around us.
“In our daily life we take these sensations for granted, but how are nerve impulses triggered so that temperature and pressure are perceived? This year’s Nobel Prize winners solved this question. ”
“ Our understanding of how the nervous system perceives and interprets our environment contained a fundamental unsolved question before they were discovered: How are temperature and mechanical stimuli converted into electrical impulses in the nervous system. “
Julius, 65, was recognized for his research on capsaicin – a compound made from chili peppers that causes a burning sensation – to find out which nerve sensors in the skin respond to heat.
He told Im Scientific American Year 2019 that after a visit to the grocery store he had the idea to study chili peppers.
« I was looking at these shelves and shelves with chili peppers and extracts (hot sauce) and thought, ‘This is such an important one and such fun problem. I have to take it really seriously. ‘ »he said.
Julius, professor at the University of California at San Francisco, and the 12 year old young ere Patapoutian, a professor at Scripps Research in California, shared the Nobel Prize check for SEK 10 million (US $ 1.1 million).
Pioneers of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology who created the Paved the way for mRNA-Covid vaccines, and immune system researchers have been widely cited as favorites.
While the prize was awarded in the midst of the pandemic in 2020, the entire selection process will take place in the shadow of Covid-19 for the first time.
Last year, the prize went to three virologists for the discovery of hepatitis C Virus.
The Nobel season continues on Tuesday with the Physics Award and Chemistry Wednesday, followed by the highly anticipated Thursday Literature Awards and Peace on Friday, before the Economics Award ends on Monday October 11th goes.
For the peace prize on Friday, media guards such as Reporters Without Borders and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists were named as possible winners, as well as the Belarusian opposition headed by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. Climate activists such as the Swede Greta Thunberg and her Fridays for Future movement are also mentioned.
For the presentation of the literary prize on Thursday, Stockholm’s literary circles are swarming with the names of dozens of usual suspects.
The Swedish Academy has since 2012, when China’s Mo Yan won, only European and North American winners have been selected, leading to speculation that it could correct that imbalance this year. A total of 95 of 117 literary prize winners came from Europe and North America.
While the names of the Nobel Prize winners have been kept secret until the last minute, the Nobel Foundation has already announced that the lavish awards ceremony and banquet for the science and science community that will take place in Stockholm in December and literary award winners will not take place this year due to the pandemic.
A decision has yet to be made about the award ceremony for the Peace Prize in Oslo on the same day.
© 2021 AFP
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