Nobel prize in medicine awarded to US duo for work on sense of touch

Two US researchers have won the 2021 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for work that unlocked the secrets of the sense of touch.

Prof David Julius, a physiologist at the University of California in San Francisco, and Prof Ardem Patapoutian, a neuroscientist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California were honoured for their discovery of receptors in the skin that sense heat, cold and touch – making them them crucial for survival.

The award, announced on Monday by the Nobel assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, is worth 10m Swedish kronor (£845,000), to be shared equally between the winners.

Professor Patrik Ernfors, an expert in sensory biology at the Karolinska Institute and a member of the Nobel committee said: “The work has unlocked one of the secrets of nature by explaining the molecular basis for sensing temperature and mechanical force.”