2021 Nobel Prize in Medicine

WHY IN THE NEWS?

American scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the prestigious “2021 Nobel Prize for Medicine”.

About:

• They won the prize for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.
• According to the award-giving body, these discoveries could make way for new painkillers.
• These findings have allowed us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical force initiate the nerve impulses which in turn allow humans to perceive and adapt to the world around them.
• This development and knowledge are being used to develop treatments for several disease conditions, including chronic pain.
• This year, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was shared in equal parts by the two laureates.
• But medicine has been in the spotlight because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were recommendations that those who developed covid-19 vaccines could be awarded Nobel Prizes.

About Nobel Prizes

The prestigious Nobel prizes for “science, literature and peace” were created and funded in the name of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel. The prize has been awarded since 1901. The Nobel prize for economics was first conferred in 1969. This century-old prize is worth 10 million Swedish crowns.

Who is Ardem Patapoutian?

Ardem Patapoutian was born in 1967 in Lebanon, to Armenian parents.  He moved to Los Angeles in his youth and currently he is a Professor at Scripps Research, La Jolla, California. He has done research at the University of California, San Francisco as well as at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. He was awarded with The Nobel Prize for finding a cellular mechanism and underlying gene which translates a mechanical force on our skin into an electric nerve signal.

Who is David Julius?

Davis Julius was born in New York. He is a Professor at University of California, San Francisco. He was awarded for his findings on the skin’s sense of temperature on the basis of how certain cells react to capsaicin.