Ardem Patapoutian | |
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Born | 1967 (age 56–57) Beirut, Lebanon |
Citizenship |
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Education | American University of Beirut University of California, Los Angeles (BS) California Institute of Technology (MS, PhD) |
Known for | research of PIEZO1, PIEZO2, TRPM8 receptors |
Awards | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2021) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Molecular biology, neuroscience |
Institutions | Scripps Research |
Thesis | The role of the MyoD family genes during mouse development (1996) |
Doctoral advisor | Barbara Wold |
Ardem Patapoutian (born 1967) [1] is a Lebanese-American molecular biologist, neuroscientist, and Nobel Prize laureate of Armenian descent. [2] He is known for his work in characterizing the PIEZO1, PIEZO2, and TRPM8 receptors that detect pressure, menthol, and temperature. Patapoutian is a neuroscience professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. In 2021, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with David Julius. [3]
Ardem Patapoutian (Armenian : Արտեմ Փաթափութեան) was born to an Armenian family in Beirut, Lebanon. [2] [4] [5] His father, Sarkis Patapoutian (better known by the pen name Sarkis Vahakn ), is a poet and an accountant, [6] while his mother, Haiguhi Adjemian, was the principal of an Armenian school in Beirut. He has a brother, Ara, and a sister, Houry. [7] His ancestors survived the Armenian Genocide. [8] [9] He is childhood friends with journalist and author Vicken Cheterian. [10] He attended the Demirdjian and Hovagimian Armenian schools in Beirut. [10] He enrolled at the American University of Beirut for a year before emigrating to the United States in 1986. [5] [11] He received a B.S. degree in cell and developmental biology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1990 and a PhD degree in biology from the California Institute of Technology in 1996 under direction of Barbara Wold. [12] [5] [13]
As a postdoctoral fellow, Patapoutian worked with Louis F. Reichardt at the University of California, San Francisco. [14] In 2000, he became an assistant professor at the Scripps Research Institute. [15] Between 2000 and 2014, he had an additional research position for the Novartis Research Foundation. [16] Since 2014, Patapoutian has been an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). [13]
Patapoutian, a naturalized US citizen, [5] lives in Del Mar, California with his wife Nancy Hong, a venture capitalist, and son, Luca. [17] [18] [19] [20]
Patapoutian's research is into the biological receptors for temperature and touch (nociception). [3] The knowledge is used to develop treatments for a range of diseases, including chronic pain. [21] The discoveries made it possible to understand how heat, cold and mechanical forces trigger nerve impulses. [21]
Patapoutian researches the signal transduction of sensors. Patapoutian and co-workers inactivated genes. [22] In this way, they identified the gene, that made the cells insensitive for touch. [22] The channel for the sense of touch was called PIEZO1 (transl. pressure). [22] Through its similarity to PIEZO1, a second gene was discovered and named PIEZO2. [23] This ion channel, the more important of the two mechanoreceptors, is essential for the sense of touch. [23] [24] PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 channels have been shown to regulate additional important physiological processes including blood pressure, respiration and urinary bladder control. [23]
Patapoutian also made significant contributions to the identification of novel ion channels and receptors that are activated by temperature, mechanical forces or increased cell volume. [25] [26] Patapoutian and co-workers were able to show that these ion channels play an outstanding role in the sensation of temperature, in the sensation of touch, in proprioception, [27] in the sensation of pain and in the regulation of vascular tone. More recent work uses functional genomics techniques to identify and characterize mechanosensitive ion channels (mechanotransduction). [15] [28] [29] [30]
Patapoutian has an h-index of 68 according to Google Scholar, [31] and of 63 according to Scopus [32] (As of May 2020 [update] ). He has been a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 2016, a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2017 [33] and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2020. [34]
In 2017, Patapoutian received the W. Alden Spencer Award, [35] in 2019 the Rosenstiel Award, [36] in 2020 the Kavli Prize for Neuroscience, [37] and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology / Biomedicine. [38]
In 2021, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with David Julius for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch. [3] [39] [40]
In October 2021 President of Lebanon Michel Aoun awarded Patapoutian the Lebanese Order of Merit. [41]
In December 2021, Patapoutian received the American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award presented by Awards Council member Frances Arnold. [42]
Patapoutian, the first Armenian Nobel laureate, received a hero's welcome when he visited Armenia in June 2022. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan awarded him the Order of St. Mesrop Mashtots, [43] while the Armenian National Academy of Sciences elected him an honorary member, [44] and the Yerevan State Medical University awarded him an honorary doctorate. [45] Patapoutian gifted a replica of his Nobel medal to the History Museum of Armenia. [46] [47] HayPost issued a stamp dedicated to him. [48]
G proteins, also known as guanine nucleotide-binding proteins, are a family of proteins that act as molecular switches inside cells, and are involved in transmitting signals from a variety of stimuli outside a cell to its interior. Their activity is regulated by factors that control their ability to bind to and hydrolyze guanosine triphosphate (GTP) to guanosine diphosphate (GDP). When they are bound to GTP, they are 'on', and, when they are bound to GDP, they are 'off'. G proteins belong to the larger group of enzymes called GTPases.
In physiology, thermoception or thermoreception is the sensation and perception of temperature, or more accurately, temperature differences inferred from heat flux. It deals with a series of events and processes required for an organism to receive a temperature stimulus, convert it to a molecular signal, and recognize and characterize the signal in order to trigger an appropriate defense response.
Sydney Brenner was a South African biologist. In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner made significant contributions to work on the genetic code, and other areas of molecular biology while working in the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. He established the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism for the investigation of developmental biology, and founded the Molecular Sciences Institute in Berkeley, California, United States.
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In cellular biology, mechanotransduction is any of various mechanisms by which cells convert mechanical stimulus into electrochemical activity. This form of sensory transduction is responsible for a number of senses and physiological processes in the body, including proprioception, touch, balance, and hearing. The basic mechanism of mechanotransduction involves converting mechanical signals into electrical or chemical signals.
Merkel nerve endings are mechanoreceptors, a type of sensory receptor, that are found in the basal epidermis and hair follicles. They are nerve endings and provide information on mechanical pressure, position, and deep static touch features, such as shapes and edges.
Francis Peyton Rous was an American pathologist at the Rockefeller University known for his works in oncoviruses, blood transfusion and physiology of digestion. A medical graduate from the Johns Hopkins University, he was discouraged to become a practicing physician due to severe tuberculosis. After three years of working as an instructor of pathology at the University of Michigan, he became dedicated researcher at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research for the rest of his career.
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Mechanosensitive channels (MSCs), mechanosensitive ion channels or stretch-gated ion channels are membrane proteins capable of responding to mechanical stress over a wide dynamic range of external mechanical stimuli. They are present in the membranes of organisms from the three domains of life: bacteria, archaea, and eukarya. They are the sensors for a number of systems including the senses of touch, hearing and balance, as well as participating in cardiovascular regulation and osmotic homeostasis (e.g. thirst). The channels vary in selectivity for the permeating ions from nonselective between anions and cations in bacteria, to cation selective allowing passage Ca2+, K+ and Na+ in eukaryotes, and highly selective K+ channels in bacteria and eukaryotes.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine. This award is administered by the Nobel Foundation, and awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on proposal of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry which consists of five members elected by the Academy. The award is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
David Jay Julius is an American physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate known for his work on molecular mechanisms of pain sensation and heat, including the characterization of the TRPV1 and TRPM8 receptors that detect capsaicin, menthol, and temperature. He is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.
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PIEZO1 is a mechanosensitive ion channel protein that in humans is encoded by the gene PIEZO1. PIEZO1 and its close homolog PIEZO2 were cloned in 2010, using an siRNA-based screen for mechanosensitive ion channels.
Piezo-type mechanosensitive ion channel component 2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the PIEZO2 gene. It has a homotrimeric structure, with three blades curving into a nano-dome, with a diameter of 28 nanometers.
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The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to the American physiologist David Julius and Armenian-American neuroscientist Ardem Patapoutian "for the discovery of receptors for temperature and touch." During the award ceremony on December 10, 2021, Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet member Patrik Ernfors expressed:
"The 2021 Nobel Prize laureates have explained fundamental mechanisms underpinning how we sense the world within and around us. Our temperature and touch sensors are used all the time in every day of our lives. They continuously keep us updated about our environment, and without them even the simplest of our daily tasks would be impossible to perform."
...Patapoutian and his wife, venture capitalist Nancy Hong...