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Nobel in Medicine: How we sense temperature difference? What the discovery says
Nobel Prize 2021: According to experts, the discoveries show how little scientists knew about how our bodies perceived the external worlds before these discoveries - and how much there still is to learn.
Two American scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries on receptors for temperature and touch. The research done by David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian was conducted independently of each other in the late 1990s and 2000s.
But, the groundbreaking work is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of diseases and conditions, including chronic pain.
Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival, the Nobel Committee said, and underpins our interaction with the world around us.
What did they discover?
The two US scientists identified receptors in the skin that respond to heat and pressure. Focussing on a field known as somatosenstation, Julius and Patapoutian decoded how the human body turns physical sensations into electrical pulses in the nervous system.
Why is the discovery significant?
According to experts, the discoveries show how little scientists knew about how our bodies perceived the external worlds before these discoveries - and how much there still is to learn. "While we understood the physiology of the senses, what we didn't understand was how we sensed differences in temperature or pressure," said Oscar Marin, director of the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at King's College, London.
"Knowing how much our body sensed these changes is fundamental because once we know those molecules, they can be targeted. It's like finding a lock and now we know the precise key that will be necessary to unlock it," he added.
What this means is that in the future, these discoveries could underpin how research into treating pain since the first heat sensor discovered (TRPV1) is also involved in chronic pain.
The touch receptor, PIEZo2, has multiple roles, including regulating blood pressure.
