David Julius, from the University of California, San Francisco, and Ardem Patapoutian, from the Scripps Institute, La Jolla, US, received the award for identifying the receptors that enable humans to sense temperature, pain, and pressure, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced on Monday.
"David Julius utilised capsaicin, a pungent compound from chili peppers that induces a burning sensation, to identify a sensor in the nerve endings of the skin that responds to heat. Ardem Patapoutian used pressure-sensitive cells to discover a novel class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs. These breakthrough discoveries launched intense research activities leading to a rapid increase in our understanding of how our nervous system senses heat, cold, and mechanical stimuli", the assembly explained.
According to the assembly, the studies are being used "to develop treatments for a range of disease conditions, including chronic pain".