Ardem Patapoutian (left) and David Julius jointly won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Photo: Handout and Noah Berger/AFP
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https://scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3151246/hot-sauces-and-hugs-sparked-2021-nobel-prize-winners Health & Wellness
Hot sauces and hugs sparked 2021 Nobel Prize winners’ research, leading to new ways of treating chronic pain, heart disease
- David Julius wanted to know how chemicals in hot peppers, caused the sensation of heat, while menthol caused a cold feeling
- Independently, Ardem Patapoutian wanted to understand the mysteries of touch and pressure in the body
The joint winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology were inspired by chilli peppers and hugs. Photo: Shutterstock
David Julius was browsing a supermarket aisle filled with chilli pepper sauces when he turned to his wife, a fellow scientist, and said he thought it was time he finally solved the question of how certain chemicals cause the sensation of heat.
“Well then, you should get on it,” came her reply.
Ardem Patapoutian, meanwhile, had long been driven to unlock the neglected mysteries of touch, which govern everything from how we discriminate between objects and how we feel when we hug another person, to how our bodies intuitively “know” where our limbs are, without looking.
Both American molecular biologists won the Nobel Medicine Prize for their groundbreaking advances into how the human body perceives temperature and touch, conducted independently of each other in the late 1990s and 2000s, that are now being turned towards developing new ways of treating pain and heart disease.
Julius, of the University of California, San Francisco, told reporters he had always been fascinated by how people interact with natural products in their environment, and by how certain plants contain chemical irritants, such as spice.
Prior research had shown capsaicin was important as an activator of neurons involved in pain – but the underlying mechanism was unclear.
Julius discovered in 1997 the specific protein on the outer tip of sensory nerves responsible for the sensation of burning pain from chillies – and found it also responded to high temperatures.
He then turned to compounds from menthol and mint to identify similar “receptors” responsible for cold, and used molecules from wasabi to learn about inflammatory pain.
“There’s a time when you make a discovery, where you’re the only person on the planet, or at least you think you’re the only person on the planet, who knows the answer to a particular question, and that’s a really thrilling moment.”
Julius hugs his son Philip soon after learning he was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize. Photo: Noah Berger/University of California San Francisco via AP
Ardem Patapoutian was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize for groundbreaking research that solved a long-standing mystery of how the body senses touch and other mechanical stimuli. Photo: courtesy of Scripps Research via AP
A number of drug candidates to stop chronic pain are in the pipeline, but have so far come up against challenging side effects.
“You have to walk this line of wanting to inhibit pain that’s chronic … but not eliminate pain sensation that’s protective or acute,” he said.
Patapoutian, of Scripps Research in San Diego, California, also made discoveries linked to temperature, but his investigations into pressure stood out even more.
Specifically, he found two genes responsible for converting pressure into electrical signals through tests on lab-cultured cells.
It was a painstaking progress arrived at by deleting one gene after another. “After working on this for a whole year and getting one negative result after another, the 72nd candidate … wiped out this ability,” he said at a press event.
Patapoutian, who grew up in war-torn Lebanon and came to the US aged 18, said it was hard for him to imagine the day would come that he would win a Nobel.
Patapoutian holds a model of the Piezo protein in his office at the Dorris Neuroscience Centre in San Diego. Photo: AP Photo/Derrick Tuskan
When the Nobel committee tried calling him at 2am in California, his phone was on silent.
“They somehow got a hold of my 94-year-old father who lives in Los Angeles, and I guess even if you have ‘Do not disturb’ people in your favourites can call you,” he said, adding it was a “very special moment.”