BackNobel Prize in medicine goes to US duo David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian
The US duo was cited for their discovery of receptors for temperature and touchThe winners were announced Monday by Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Committee
PremiumThe Nobel Prize in the field of physiology or medicine has been awarded to U.S. scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian.
They were cited for their discovery of receptors for temperature and touch.
The winners were announced Monday by Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Committee.
“Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival and underpins our interaction with the world around us. 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," the Nobel Jury said in a statement.
"The groundbreaking discoveries... by this year's Nobel Prize laureates 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," the Nobel jury said.
"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, a professor at the University of California in San Francisco and Patapoutian, a professor at Scripps Research in California, will share the Nobel Prize cheque for 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million, one million euros).
The first of the 2021 Nobel Prizes are announced Monday with the naming of the winner, or winners, in the field of physiology or medicine.
A panel at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm will announce the recipient after 11:30 a.m. (0930 GMT).
Last year's prize went to three scientists who discovered the liver-ravaging hepatitis C virus, a breakthrough that led to cures for the deadly disease and tests to keep the scourge from spreading though blood banks.
The Nobel Assembly often commends basic science, but practical applications are also sometimes recognized. This could boost the chances of those involved in developing vaccines against the coronavirus getting the prize.
The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.
The other prizes are for outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics.
Here is a list of the winners of the Nobel Medicine Prize in the past 10 years:
2020: Americans Harvey Alter and Charles Rice, together with Briton Michael Houghton, for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus, leading to the development of sensitive blood tests and antiviral drugs.
2019: William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza of the US and Britain's Peter Ratcliffe for establishing the basis of our understanding of how cells react and adapt to different oxygen levels.
2018: Immunologists James Allison of the US and Tasuku Honjo of Japan, for figuring out how to release the immune system's brakes to allow it to attack cancer cells more efficiently.
2017: US geneticists Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young for their discoveries on the internal biological clock that governs the wake-sleep cycles of most living things.
2016: Yoshinori Ohsumi of Japan for his work on autophagy -- a process whereby cells "eat themselves" -- which when disrupted can cause Parkinson's and diabetes.
2015: William Campbell, a US citizen born in Ireland, Satoshi Omura of Japan and Tu Youyou of China for unlocking treatments for malaria and roundworm.
2014: American-born Briton John O'Keefe, Edvard I. Moser and May-Britt Moser of Norway for discovering how the brain navigates with an "inner GPS".
2013: Thomas C. Sudhof, a US citizen born in Germany, and James E. Rothman and Randy W. Schekman of the US for work on how the cell organises its transport system.
2012: Japan's Shinya Yamanaka and Briton John B. Gurdon for discoveries showing how adult cells can be transformed back into stem cells.
2011: Bruce Beutler of the US, Jules Hoffmann, a French citizen born in Luxembourg, and Ralph Steinman of Canada for work on the body's immune system.
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