The Nobel Prize in Medicine for 2021 was awarded to scientists David Julius and Ardem Pataputian for their discoveries in the field of vital functions of living organisms.
In the process of studying the reactions of organisms to temperature, the researchers discovered receptor molecules that trigger biochemical processes that cause a feeling of heat, cold, or touch.
"The main discoveries of this year's Nobel Prize winners helped explain how heat, cold and touch can initiate signals in our nervous system. The discovered ion channels are important for many physiological processes and disease states," the jury commented on their decision.
Julius, who grew up in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, received his bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977. Julius, 65, discovered a receptor in skin nerve endings that responds to heat in the 1990s, received his doctorate in 1984 from the University of California, Berkeley, and later moved to San Francisco, where he has worked ever since. In 1989, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Richard Axel at Columbia University, where he cloned and characterized the serotonin receptor.
His colleague Pataputyan, aged 54, used pressure-sensitive cells in the 2000s and discovered a new class of receptors (TRPM8) that are activated by low temperature. He received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
