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STOCKHOLM (AP) – Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for their findings on how the human body perceives temperature and touch, revelations that could lead to new ways of treating pain or even heart disease.
The Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian separately identified receptors in the skin as part of their work in the field of somatosensation, which explores the ability of specialized organs such as the eyes, ears and skin to see, hear and feel.
Julius used capsaicin, the active component in chili peppers, to help locate nerve sensors that respond to heat, while Patapoutian found pressure-sensitive sensors in cells that respond to mechanical stimulation, the committee said. .
“It really reveals one of nature’s secrets,” said Thomas Perlmann, secretary general of the Nobel committee, announcing the winners. “It’s actually something that is crucial to our survival, so it’s a very important and profound discovery.”
The committee said their findings touched on “one of the great mysteries facing humanity”: how we feel about our surroundings.
“How are nerve impulses triggered so that temperature and pressure can be felt? The committee asked in the ad. “This question has been answered by this year’s Nobel Prize winners.”
Julius, who was born in New York and now works at the University of California at San Francisco, said he was awakened by what he thought was a phone call shortly before the Nobel Prize was announced.
“My phone sort of rang, and it was from a relative who had been contacted by a member of the Nobel committee trying to find my phone number,” he said from his home in San Francisco, where he ‘was in the middle of the night.
It wasn’t until his wife heard Perlmann’s voice and confirmed that it was indeed the Secretary General of the Nobel Committee calling him, that he realized it wasn’t a joke. Julius said his wife worked with Perlmann years ago.
Julius, 65, said he hopes his work will lead to the development of new pain medications, explaining that the biology behind even daily activities can be of huge importance.
“We eat chili peppers and menthol, but a lot of times you don’t think about how it works,” he said.
Patapoutian, who was born in Lebanon, is based at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.
The choice of winners underlined how little scientists knew about how our bodies perceive the outside world before the discoveries – and how much more remains to be learned, said Oscar Marin, director of the MRC Center for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the King’s College London.
“While we understood the physiology of the senses, what we didn’t understand was how we felt the differences in temperature or pressure,” Marin said. “Knowing how our body perceives these changes is fundamental because once we know these molecules, they can be targeted. It’s like finding a lock and now we know the precise keys that will be needed to unlock it.
Marin said the findings opened up “a whole area of pharmacology” and that the researchers were already working to develop drugs to target the receptors they identified.
Marin predicted that new pain treatments would likely come first, but knowing how the body senses changes in pressure could eventually lead to heart disease medications, if scientists can find a way to ease the pressure on it. blood vessels and other organs.
Last year’s award went to three scientists who discovered hepatitis C virus ravages the liver, a breakthrough that led to cures for the deadly disease and tests to prevent the scourge from spreading through blood banks.
The prestigious award is accompanied by a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $ 1.14 million). The prize money comes from a bequest left by the creator of the prize, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.
The prize is the first to be awarded this year. The other prizes recognize outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economical.
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Cheng reported from London. Associated Press writer Frank Jordans contributed from Berlin.
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