Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021

David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian

for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch

David Julius
Born 1955, New York, NY, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: Department of Physiology, UCSF, USA

Julius obtained his undergraduate degree in life sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and went on to do a PhD in biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He completed postdoctoral research at Colombia University before joining the department of Cellular & Molecular Pharmacology as an Assistant Professor at UCSF, where he is now the Chair for the Department of Physiology. During his career he has researched the mechanisms of pain and heat sensation, using the chemical compound capsaicin from chilli peppers. He and his coworkers successfully characterized the TRPV1 and TRPM8 receptors. Dr Julius is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the National Academy of Science.

The information on this page is based on content at Nobelprize.org © The Nobel Foundation and Julius' faculty page.  Photo credit Steve Babuljak/UCSF