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Hot—and cool—research wins Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Two researchers who elucidated key molecules that control the sense of touch have won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian were awarded the prize for their discoveries of receptors that tell us how hot or cold something is, and whether the skin is pressured—whether it’s a sharp poke or a gentle breeze.

The sense of touch “has fascinated humankind for thousands of years,” Patrik Ernfors, a member of the Nobel Committee, said this morning at the announcement in Stockholm. The laureates’ research “has unlocked one of the secrets of nature, by explaining the molecular basis for sensing temperature and mechanical force,” said Ernfors, who studies somatic sensation at the Karolinska Institute.

Julius, who works at the University of California, San Francisco, discovered the sensor in the skin’s nerve endings that detects heat, in experiments using capsaicin, the “hot” compound in chili peppers.

Working with single cells exposed to capsaicin, he was able to identify the gene that enables cells to sense the molecule, and he showed it also senses heat. The gene codes for an ion channel, which reacts to capsaicin or heat by letting ions flow into the nerve cell.

A few years later Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, who works at Scripps Research and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, independently found a related channel that reacts to cold—and to menthol, which makes mint taste minty cool. The channels work together to sense temperature and trigger the pain induced by heat or cold.

Patapoutian also discovered the gene that enables nerve cells to sense pressure—being poked, for example, by a pipette.

The insights have helped scientists get closer to understanding chronic pain conditions, for instance following shingles, and could help in the development of new pain therapies. “These novel receptors will for sure be targets for drug development in the future,” Nils-Göran Larsson, the chair of the Nobel Committee, said this morning.

This story will be updated.

Source: Science Mag