American scientists David Julius and Lebanese-American molecular biologist Ardem Patapoutian won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.
- The discovery explains how heat, cold and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive and adapt to the world around us.
- This finding is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of disease conditions, including chronic pain.
David Julius:-
i.David Julius is an American physiologist and a professor at the University of California, San Francisco. He is well known for his work on molecular mechanisms of pain sensation and heat.
ii.He also the 2010 Shaw Prize recipient in Life Science and Medicine and the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
Ardem Patapoutian :-
Ardem Patapoutian is a Lebanese-American molecular biologist and neuroscientist of Armenian descent at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.
Note – Americans Harvey Alter, Charles Rice and Briton Michael Houghton were the recipients of the 2020 Noble Prize in Medicine for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus which causes cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Gist About Noble Prize
- Nobel Prizes are conferred to the recipients who have contributed the greatest benefit to humankind in the areas of the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace according to the Sir Alfred Nobel’s will of 1895.
- The Noble prizes started in 1901 and Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden’s central bank) established the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1969.
- Other than peace, the rest of the prizes will be issued by Sweden Country whereas the peace prize will be issued by the Norway Country.
