Receptores para la temperatura y el tacto: sensores para sentir e interpretar el mundo que nos rodea. Premio Nobel de Fisiología o Medicina 2021

Abstract

A gas leak, an approaching train, the proximity of a fire, a rotten meal or simply a caress or tasting a good wine, it is a question of how we perceive the physical world through sensory perceptions and how we build an image in our brain and its study has fascinated mankind for millennia. These questions and the milestones generated have been awarded several Nobel Prizes and has culminated in the 2021 Nobel Prize in Medicine that has been awarded to the North Americans David Julius, a biochemist, professor at the University of California and Ardem Patapoutian, a molecular biologist of Armenian origin and born in Lebanon, also a researcher at the University of California, La Jolla, for their findings about temperature and touch receptors. The groundbreaking discoveries of the TRPV1, TRPM8 and PIEZO ion channels made by the laureates have provided insight into the molecular basis of the perception of heat, cold, pain, mechanical forces, and the position of our body in space, and how these sensations of such a varied nature are transformed into nerve impulses in the CNS that allow us to generate an internal representation of the world around us and adapt to it.