Duo receives the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology

The Nobel Prize in Medicine / Physiology was awarded today. The prize went to research on receptors for temperatures and touch.

The researchers are named David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian.

David Julius is American and active at the University of California. Ardem Patapoutian was born in Beirut, Lebanon but has been active in Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.

– This year’s Nobel Prize is about our senses, our senses allow us to perceive and interpret the world around us, says Patrik Ernfors, member of the Nobel Committee.

The Nobel Prize, which is awarded this year in medicine and physiology, is about the human ability to experience temperatures and touch. The mind that has to do with it is called somatosensory.

– Imagine walking barefoot in a field during a summer morning, you can feel the heat of the sun, the morning dew, the breeze and the grass. These are emotions that depend on somatosensory, says Patrik Angfors.

– It is information that flows between our skin and our internal organs, it is the contact between our external and internal world, says Patrik Ernfors.

Converts signals

This year’s Nobel laureate’s discovery is that there are receptors in our nerves, which detect and convert temperature and touch into biological signals.

– Chili peppers were an important part of this year’s Nobel Prize-winning discovery. When we eat strong food with chili, we feel that it burns, sometimes in a painful way, in a way that can make us sweat, says Patrik Ernfors.

The researchers used the active the substance in chili to trigger reactions in the receptors. After a long time, a protein was discovered that acts as a temperature-sensitive channel for these signals. It was activated at different temperatures.

Published : Published: 04 October 2021 at 11.34