美国两位科学家获2021年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖

文 / 潘万莉

10/04/2021

美国科学家大卫·朱利叶斯（David Julius）和阿登·帕塔普蒂安（Ardem Patapoutian）因在感受温度和触觉方面的发现获奖。（法新社）

（早报讯）据诺贝尔奖官网消息，2021年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖率先揭晓，美国科学家大卫·朱利叶斯（David Julius）和阿登·帕塔普蒂安（Ardem Patapoutian）因在感受温度和触觉方面的发现获奖。

瑞典卡罗林斯卡医学院（Karolinska Institutet）诺贝尔奖委员会当天在斯德哥尔摩宣布了这一消息。美国加利福尼亚大学旧金山分校的教授朱利叶斯和美国加利福尼亚州拉霍亚斯克里普斯研究所的阿登·帕塔普蒂安获得这一奖项，以表彰他们在“发现温度和触觉感受器”方面作出的贡献。两位获奖者将分享1000万瑞典克朗奖金。

诺贝尔基金会9月23日宣布，受冠病疫情影响，2021年诺贝尔物理学奖、化学奖、生理学或医学奖、文学奖以及经济学奖得主将延续去年的方式，在各自国家获颁相关奖项，而不是按传统赴瑞典首都斯德哥尔摩参加颁奖典礼。

12月10日是瑞典化学家和发明家诺贝尔的逝世纪念日，每年的诺贝尔奖颁奖典礼都安排在这一天举行。依照惯例，当年各奖项获奖者会前往斯德哥尔摩出席颁奖仪式和晚宴，幷参加获奖者讲座、音乐会等一系列诺贝尔周活动。受新冠疫情影响，2020年诺奖得主们在各自国家获颁相关奖项，主办方在斯德哥尔摩市政厅线上直播了颁奖仪式。当年的诺贝尔奖颁奖晚宴也因疫情取消。

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Two Americans win Medicine Nobel for work on heat and touch

By Johan Ahlander and Ludwig Burger

10/04/2021

Summary

Americans Julius and Patapoutian win Nobel medicine prize
Discoveries of receptors for temperature, touch recognised
Discoveries could pave the way for new pain-killers

STOCKHOLM, Oct 4 (Reuters) – American scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday for the discovery of receptors in the skin that sense temperature and touch and could pave the way for new pain-killers.

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).

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 (UCFS), after earlier work at Columbia University, in New York.

Thomas Perlmann, Secretary of the Nobel Assembly and the Nobel Committee, announces the winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian (seen on the screen) during a press conference at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden October 4, 2021. T TT News Agency/Jessica Gow via REUTERS

Nobel Committee member Patrik Ernfors explains the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine during a press conference at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden October 4, 2021. TT News Agency/Jessica Gow via REUTERS

David Julius, PhD, professor and chair of University of California, San Francisco’s Department of Physiology, poses after winning the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in San Francisco, Califorinia, U.S. September 5, 2019. Picture taken September 5, 2019. UCSF/Noah Berger/Handout via REUTERS

David Julius, PhD, professor and chair of University of California, San Francisco’s Department of Physiology, poses in his office at UCSF Mission Bay in San Francisco, Califorinia, U.S. in a 2016 photograph. UCSF/Steve Babuljak/Handout via REUTERS

Professor Ardem Patapoutian of the Department of Neuroscience at Scripps Insitute, who won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, poses in an undated photograph. Courtesy of Ardem Patapoutian/Handout via REUTERS

His findings were inspired by his fascination for how natural products can be used to probe biological function and he used capsaicin, the molecule that makes chili peppers spicy by simulating a false sensation of heat, to understand the skin’s sense of temperature.

Julius hopes his work will help identify new strategies for treating chronic pain syndromes.

“We all know there’s a real lack of drugs and approaches to treat chronic pain,” Julius said in a 2017 video posted on Youtube by UCSF. “I think we need some new insights and new ideas for treating pain, pharmacologically and other ways, and I think our work will contribute to that.”

SURPRISE AND SHOCK

Both laureates were caught off guard, according to the committee. Professor Thomas Perlmann, Secretary-General for the Nobel Assembly and the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, described them as “incredibly happy and as far as I could tell very surprised and a little bit shocked.”

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.

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 glamour. The banquet in Stockholm has been postponed for a second successive year amid lingering worries about the virus and international travel.

($1 = 8.7272 Swedish crowns)

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