David Julius, 1.1 million USD
In 2021, the Professor of Sensory Physiology at the University of Berkeley was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine together with his colleague Ardem Patapoutian. Thanks to their experiments with chili and spider venom on the sensors of nerve cells, we now have a precise understanding of how our nerve receptors react to heat, cold and pain. The findings not only offer new possibilities for chronic pain patients, but also provide valuable insights for the future treatment of cancer and asthma. The scientist explained that his investigations into the molecular causes of pain perception were initially based on pure curiosity, without knowing whether they would ultimately lead to useful findings.
David Julius, USD 1.1 million
Ardem Patapoutian, USD 1.1 million
Together with his colleague David Julius, the physician has spent years studying the question of how nerve cells convert physiological stimuli such as heat, cold and pain into electrical signals and transmit them to the brain. The Nobel Prize Scientific Committee in Stockholm announced that this fundamental question, which scientists have been asking themselves since Descartes’ discovery of nerve cells, has now been answered convincingly for the first time. The two researchers, who worked independently of each other, were jointly awarded a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2021. The prize money of around 1.1 million US dollars will be split between them. The researchers hope that their findings will provide new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of chronic pain, cancer and asthma.
Ardem Patapoutian, 1.1 million USD
