The Crystallographic Community

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021

David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian

for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch

[A. Patapoutian]

Ardem Patapoutian
Born 1967, Beirut, Lebanon

Affiliation at the time of the award: Scripps Research, USA

Patapoutian obtained his undergraduate degree in molecular, cellular and development biology from the University of California, Los Angeles and went on to do a PhD at the California Institute of Technology. He is a professor of neuroscience at Scripps Research. His research has focused on characterization of receptors that detect temperature and pressure stimuli. He and his team identified Piezo1 and Piezo2, mechanically activated cation channels that are expressed in many mechanosensitive cell types. Current efforts focus on understanding structure-function relationships of Piezo proteins and elucidating their physiological roles in biological processes and diseases that involve mechanotransduction.

The information on this page is based on content at Nobelprize.org © The Nobel Foundation and Patapoutian's faculty page.  Photo credit Sandy Huffaker/AP Images for HHMI


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