Abstract
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021 was Awarded Jointly to Researchers—A ‘touchy’ story.....
Highlights
As Professor Abdel El Manira, member of the the Nobel Assembly said, “This discovery has profoundly changed our view of how we sense the world around us”
David Julius at the University of California, San Francisco, USA, saw the possibility for major advances by analyzing how the chemical compound capsaicin causes the burning sensation we feel when we come into contact with chili peppers
Capsaicin was already known to activate nerve cells causing pain sensations, but how this chemical exerted this function was an unsolved riddle. Julius and his co-workers created a library of millions of DNA fragments corresponding to genes that are expressed in the sensory neurons which can react to pain, heat, and touch
Summary
As Professor Abdel El Manira, member of the the Nobel Assembly said, “This discovery has profoundly changed our view of how we sense the world around us”. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021 was awarded jointly to researchers, David Julius,66, and Ardem Patapoutian, 54, from the University of California, San Francisco and Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, respectively recognising their extraordinary work in identifying and understanding the mechanism through which our body perceives temperature and pressure. Capsaicin was already known to activate nerve cells causing pain sensations, but how this chemical exerted this function was an unsolved riddle.
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