dec
2023
Wallenbergsalen, Konferenscentrum Wallenberg, Medicinaregatan 20A
The lecture is in English and the title is 'How do you feel? The molecules that sense touch'. Registration is required.
NOBEL. Every two years, the Nobel Week Dialogue is held in Gothenburg. In connection with it, students, doctoral students and employees are invited to a special lecture which is held in collaboration with Chalmers. On December 8, a Nobel laureate in medicine from 2021 will be here – Ardem Patapoutian.
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet wrote in a press release:
“The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021 was awarded jointly to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.
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? This question has been solved by this year’s Nobel Prize Laureates. David Julius utilized 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 Laureates identified critical missing links in our understanding of the complex interplay between our senses and the environment.”
Since the year 2000 Ardem Patapoutian conducts his research at Scripps Research, La Jolla, California, where he is Professor at the Department of Neuroscience.
The Nobel Week Dialogue
The Nobel Week Dialogue 2023 will bring people together from across the spectrum of science, society and culture to explore the future of migration and how to approach that future. Nobel Prize laureates Steven Chu, Abdulrazak Gurnah and Ardem Patapoutian will meet in a conversation about their own experiences of migration.
This event will also be live-streamed online if you can’t join us in Gothenburg.
Read more and register here
