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The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to two U.S.-based scientists whose fundamental work revealed the basic biology that underlies the sensations of temperature and touch. David Julius at the University of California at San Francisco and Ardem Patapoutian at Scripps Research share the award. “Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival and underpins our interaction with the world around us. In our daily lives we take these sensations for granted, but how are nerve impulses initiated so that temperature and pressure can be perceived?” the Nobel Assembly wrote in announcing the award. “This question has been solved by this year’s Nobel Prize Laureates.” (Johnson, 10/4)

The work by Dr. Julius and Dr. Patapoutian, for the first time, allows us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive and adapt to the world around us. Their work, the committee said, has already spurred intensive research into the development of treatments for a wide range of disease conditions, including chronic pain. (Santora and Engelbrecht, 10/4)

Julius is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Patapoutian is a professor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. "Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival and underpins our interaction with the world around us," the Nobel Assembly said in a statement announcing the prize. ... Thomas Perlmann, the secretary of the Nobel Assembly and the Nobel Committee, said the discovery "unlocks the secrets of nature ... It explains at a molecular level how these stimuli are converted into nerve signals. It's an important and profound discovery." (Kottasova, 10/4)