Scientists who discovered how our bodies feel hugs and heat win Nobel Prize.

Scientists who discovered how our bodies feel hugs and heat win Nobel Prize

The Laureates identified the missing links in scientists' understanding of senses and their relation to the environment.

Scientists who discovered how we sense heat, cold, and touch have been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet awarded David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian the prize jointly for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.

The Laureates explored how nerve impulses are sent in the body to allow temperature and pressure to be felt. The findings could bring new breakthroughs in treating pain conditions.                                                                                                                                           

So, how did they make these groundbreaking discoveries? David Julius used capsaicin – a compound made from chilli peppers that causes a burning sensation — to locate a sensor in the never endings of the skin that reacts to heat.

Ardem Patapoutian used pressure-sensitive cells to find a new class of sensors that react to stimuli in the skin and internal organs.


The Laureates identified the missing links in scientists' understanding of senses and their relation to the environment.

According to a statement from The Nobel Assembly, "these 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."

More in HealthInnovations

Comments

  1. This is a great Nobel prize, very deserving, for any year BUT this year. It should have been mRNA vaccines - they actually, tangibly saved humanity. TRP channels could have waited.

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  2. Why not to the coronavirus vaccine inventor!!!!

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  3. mRNAじゃなかったね.

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    1. Maybe next year or tomorrow in chemistry category

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  4. Absolutely revolutionary discoveries changing the way we think about perception. It all comes down to receptors (ion channels) in nerves that can respond to environmental stimulus. By doing so, they convert this into an electrical signal (action potential) that is sent to brain.

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    1. Absolutely revolutionary? I learned it at elementary school, and that was not yesterday, believe me. You can learn it even on the Wikipedia. :)

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    2. Of course, looking back, the most complex systems work by simple, converging mechanisms and "things are easy". If knowledge enters wikipedia, it has been truly transformative! Those discoveries really changed how we conceive perception!

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    3. I'm not sure what's up with this person. Look at their other comments, they're awfully mad because these guys won the Nobel Prize instead of the mRNA vaccines discoverers. Recognition is not a zero-sum game. Everyone should, and will, get their deserved recognition

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  5. You can do a better job next year! Don’t forget mRNA vaccines and global pandemic

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  6. To anyone who thinks this prize is a stretch, I say — channel that energy (and grant/investor money) into therapeutic uses of mechanobiology!
    And ask yourself, am ion the right side of history?

    (Also, maybe wait to see if COVID vaccines win the Chemistry prize?)

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  7. Gratulation David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian. Kann man sich die Studie anschauen? klingt spannend. Verstehe die Enttäuschung mancher wegen biontech nicht.

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  8. Neden mehmet şahin ve Özlem türeci değil ?

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    1. Çünkü Mehmet Şahin’in bilime bir katkısı yok. Uğur desen tamam da?

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  9. This is a great discovery. Touch receptors open the new world of perceiving the physical forces by the cells and tissues. Sound signaling receptors are not far away from discovery in plants too.

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    1. Can you point me somewhere on this? I’m basically familiar with the newish, fairly sophisticated sound measuring tech measuring things like ‘clicking’ of plants, like corn seedlings. Thx

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  10. Place of birth: Beirut, Lebanon
    Ardem Patapoutian
    Country built by immigrants.

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  11. Congratulations on the decision. If I remember correctly, the same Nobel Prize was awarded to the discoverer of DDT in 1948. That DDT whose harmful effects caused the deaths of millions of people.

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  12. Nobel Foundation and Karolinska will say "we only select a laureate from those nominated." First, who is this nominating discoveries on #proprioception when a global #pandemic is raging? Secondly, is awarding on "first come first serve" or "those who, during the preceding year"?

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  13. It is surely unfair. mRNA & vaccine technology ought to get the prize. The winners must reject the prize. Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin (Biontech profs) could have been awarded for the medal.

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    1. Hmm oh yea chemistry award maybe? Let's wait for it then.

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  14. Yes thanks you !!!
    Merci pour ces découvertes qui aujourd'hui récompensées par ce "Prix Nobel 2021" , fera avencer, mieux comprendre et solutionner, les maladies chroniques et invalidentes liées au émotions extra-sensorielles.

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  15. Felicidades!!! Hace 10 años escuché sobre los canales TRP y un mundo se abrió a mis ojos. He aplicado su descubrimiento en mis pacientes y me ha ayudado a ser mejor clínico.

    Congrats Drs David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, best regards from Chile!! #nobelprize2021

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  16. Dr sheldon cooper is still the best

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  17. [for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.]?
    Thanks, many Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors dead, ---- they practiced it 2000 years ago.

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  18. Well deserved, no doubt, congrats to the two winners. Important discovery.

    And yet - you missed the chance to give the award to people, including a female, who REALLY benefitted mankind in the preceding year. And could have, maybe, saved lives via making a clear statement.

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    1. Maybe this counts as biochemistry... Fingers crossed

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  19. This is amazing recognition of their outstanding contributions for many years, and for the fundamental importance of these discoveries for understanding human physiology

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  20. We have found that hair root cells are not dead in Androgeneticalopecia, they can work and product hair again. We have also found ALZHEIMER'S D. can get well. Who will interest in our research ?

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  21. Just a few words on this mistake:

    "Uğur Şahin und Özlem Türeci"

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  22. When will the work on regenerating sensory receptors be started? Now he needs to reach superior telnology such as hearing problems and eye diseases.

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