Nobel Medicine Prize awarded to US scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for work on touch, temperature
- Nobel winners are announced between October 4 and 11, starting with medicine
- Launched 120 years ago, the awards were created by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel
Nobel season opened on Monday with the prize in medicine going to US scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch that could pave the way for new painkillers.
Their groundbreaking discoveries “have allowed us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive and adapt to the world around us,” the Nobel jury said. “This knowledge is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of disease conditions, including chronic pain.”
“In our daily lives we take these sensations for granted, but how are nerve impulses initiated so that temperature and pressure can be perceived? This question has been solved by this year’s Nobel Prize laureates.”
Julius, 65, was recognised for his research using capsaicin – a compound from chilli peppers that induces a burning sensation – to identify which nerve sensors in the skin respond to heat.
Patapoutian’s pioneering discovery was identifying the class of nerve sensors that respond to touch.
Before their discoveries, “our understanding of how the nervous system senses and interprets our environment still contained a fundamental unsolved question: how are temperature and mechanical stimuli converted into electrical impulses in the nervous system,” the jury said.
“This really unlocks one of the secrets of nature,” said Thomas Perlmann, secretary general of the Nobel Committee. “It’s actually something that is crucial for our survival, so it’s a very important and profound discovery.”
Julius, a professor at the University of California in San Francisco and the 12-year-younger Patapoutian, a professor at Scripps Research in California, will share the Nobel Prize cheque for 10 million Swedish kronor (US$1.1 million).
Laureates in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature and peace are also set to be announced in the coming week, followed by economics next week.
With the exception of economics, the prizes were endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel (1833-96), the inventor of dynamite.
Five things to know about the Nobel Prizes
This year’s prize money is an increase from the 9 million kronor in recent years. Last year, the award went to three virologists for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was first awarded in 1901.
Julius and Patapoutian were not among the front runners mentioned in the speculation ahead of this year’s announcement.
While the 2020 award was handed out in the midst of the pandemic, this is the first time the entire selection process has taken place under the shadow of Covid-19.
Nominations close each year at the end of January. The actual awards – comprising a medal and a diploma – are set to be presented on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
But, in another nod to the pandemic's lingering presence, organisers have already decided that that the glittering prize ceremony and banquet held in Stockholm in December for the science and literature laureates will not happen this year.
Like last year, laureates will receive their awards in their home countries.
A decision has yet to be made about the lavish Peace Prize ceremony held in Oslo on the same day. There is still a chance the recipient of the economics award might be able to appear in person at that event, which is staged separately, in Oslo.
Reporting by Agence France-Presse, Reuters
