Patrik Ernfors (right), member of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, stands next to a screen displaying the winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine David Julius (on screen, left) and Ardem Patapoutian (on screen, right) during a press conference at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, Oct 4, 2021. (JONATHAN NACKSTRAND / AFP)
STOCKHOLM – American scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday for discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch which the award-giving body said could pave the way for new pain-killers.
Their findings "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 around us," the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinka Institute said
Their work, carried out independently, has helped show how humans convert the physical impact from heat or touch into nerve impulses that allow us to "perceive and adapt to the world around us," the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute said.
"This knowledge is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of disease conditions, including chronic pain."
Patapoutian, who was born in 1967 to Armenian parents in Lebanon and moved to Los Angeles in his youth, learnt of the news from his father as he had been out of contact by phone.
"In science many times it is the things we take for granted that are of high interest," he said of winning the more than century-old prize, which is worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.15 million).
ALSO READ: Virus-hunting trio wins Nobel for Hepatitis C discovery
He is credited for finding the celular mechanism and the underlying gene that translates a mechanical force on our skin into an electric nerve signal.
"(For) us being in the field of sense, touch and pain, this was the big elephant in room where we knew they existed, we knew they did something very different," he said.
Patapoutian is a professor at Scripps Research, La Jolla, California, having previously done research at the University of California, San Francisco, and California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
New York-born Julius, 65, is a Professor at University of California, San Francisco, after earlier work at Columbia University, in New York.
His findings on the skin's sense of temperature were based on how certain cells react to capsaicin, the molecule that makes chili peppers spicy by simulating a false sensation of heat.
Nobel Committee member Patrik Ernfors (rear, right) explains the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine during a press conference at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, Oct 4, 2021. (JESSICA GOW / TT VIA AP)
Surprised and shocked
The 2021 laureates were caught off guard, according to the committee.
"They were incredibly happy and as far as I could tell very surprised and a little bit shocked," said Professor Thomas Perlmann, Secretary-General for the Nobel Assembly and the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine.
The prestigious Nobel prizes, for achievements in science, literature and peace, were created and funded in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel. They have been awarded since 1901, with the economics prize first handed out in 1969.
The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, shared in equal parts this year by the two laureates, often lives in the shadow of the Nobels for literature and peace, and their sometimes more widely known recipients.
READ MORE: Nobel committee scales back peace prize ceremony amid virus
But medicine has been thrust into the spotlight by the COVID-19 pandemic, and some scientists had suggested those who developed coronavirus vaccines could be rewarded this year or in coming years.
The pandemic continues to haunt the Nobel ceremonies, which are usually full of old-world pomp and glamor. The banquet in Stockholm has been postponed for a second successive year amid lingering worries about the virus and international travel.
Last year's prize went to Americans Harvey Alter and Charles Rice and Briton Michael Houghton for work in identifying the Hepatitis C virus, which causes cirrhosis and liver cancer.
