The Committee said that this year’s Nobel Prize winners’ breakthrough discovery "enables us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical forces trigger nerve impulses, enabling us to perceive and adapt to the world around us". Julius and Patapoutian’s work was considered groundbreaking before their discovery. Researchers used pressure-sensitive cells to discover a new type of sensor that can respond to mechanical stimulation of skin and internal organs. The two winners pointed out that there are key missing links in our understanding of the complex interaction between the senses and the environment.
David Julius uses capsaicin (a hot compound made from capsicum, which can cause burning sensation) to identify sensors in skin nerve endings that respond to heat. Using pressure-sensitive cells, Ardem Patapoutian discovered a new kind of sensor, which can respond to mechanical stimulation of skin and internal organs. Born in Beirut, he came to Los Angeles as a teenager and is currently engaged in research at the Scripps Institute in La Jolla, California.
According to Nobel official website, David Julius was born in new york in 1955. In 1984, he received his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, and became a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University in new york. David Julius was employed by the University of California, San Francisco in 1989 and is currently a professor at the university.
Arden Pataputian was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1967. When he was young, he moved from war-torn Beirut to Los Angeles, and in 1996, he received his doctorate from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, USA. He is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. Since 2000, he has worked at the Scripps Research Center in La Jolla, California, and is currently a professor at the center. Since 2014, he has also been a researcher at Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Key published works:
Caterina MJ, Schumacher MA, Tominaga M, Rosen TA, Levine JD, Julius D. The capsaicin receptor: a heat-activated ion channel in the pain pathway. Nature 1997:389:816-824.
Tominaga M, Caterina MJ, Malmberg AB, Rosen TA, Gilbert H, Skinner K, Raumann BE, Basbaum AI, Julius D. The cloned capsaicin receptor integrates multiple pain-producing stimuli. Neuron 1998:21:531-543.
Caterina MJ, Leffler A, Malmberg AB, Martin WJ, Trafton J, Petersen-Zeitz KR, Koltzenburg M, Basbaum AI, Julius D. Impaired nociception and pain sensation in mice lacking the capsaicin receptor. Science 2000:288:306-313
McKemy DD, Neuhausser WM, Julius D. Identification of a cold receptor reveals a general role for TRP channels in thermosensation. Nature 2002:416:52-58
Peier AM, Moqrich A, Hergarden AC, Reeve AJ, Andersson DA, Story GM, Earley TJ, Dragoni I, McIntyre P, Bevan S, Patapoutian A. A TRP channel that senses cold stimuli and menthol. Cell 2002:108:705-715
Coste B, Mathur J, Schmidt M, Earley TJ, Ranade S, Petrus MJ, Dubin AE, Patapoutian A. Piezo1 and Piezo2 are essential components of distinct mechanically activated cation channels. Science 2010:330: 55-60
Ranade SS, Woo SH, Dubin AE, Moshourab RA, Wetzel C, Petrus M, Mathur J, Bégay V, Coste B, Mainquist J, Wilson AJ, Francisco AG, Reddy K, Qiu Z, Wood JN, Lewin GR, Patapoutian A. Piezo2 is the major transducer of mechanical forces for touch sensation in mice. Nature 2014:516:121-125
Woo S-H, Lukacs V, de Nooij JC, Zaytseva D, Criddle CR, Francisco A, Jessell TM, Wilkinson KA, Patapoutian A. Piezo2 is the principal mechonotransduction channel for proprioception. Nature Neuroscience 2015:18:1756-1762
The most important award for medical professionals this year is 10 million Swedish kronor (about 980 thousand euros). Since 1901, 222 people have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine, including 12 women. The first is the German bacteriologist Emil Adolf von Emil Adolf von Behring, because he found a way to treat diphtheria. In 1995, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard was the first and only German woman to win this prize. Last year, Harvey J. Alter (USA), Michael Houghton (UK) and Charles M. Rice (USA) won the award. They made great contributions to the discovery of hepatitis C virus.
List of winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in the past 6 years:
2020-Harvey J., three scientists from the United States and Britain. Alter、Michael Houghton、Charles M。 Rice won the prize for "the discovery of hepatitis C virus".
2019-William G, three scientists from the United States and Britain. Kaelin Jr、Peter J。 Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza won the prize for "discovering how cells perceive and adapt to the availability of oxygen".
2018-American scientist James P. Allision and Japanese scientist Tasuku Honjo won the prize for "discovering a cancer therapy that inhibits negative immune regulation".
2017-three American scientists Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young won the prize for "discovering the molecular mechanism of regulating circadian rhythm".
2016-Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi won the prize for "discovering the autophagy mechanism."
2015-Tu Youyou, a scientist from China, won the prize for "the discovery of new malaria treatment"; The other two award-winning scientists are William C of Ireland. Campbell and Satoshi Omura of Japan won the prize for "the discovery of a new treatment for ascaris parasitic infection".