Nobel Prize in Medicine: Triumph of the Senses

Why was everyone hoping that mRNA vaccines would make the running for the Nobel Prize in Medicine this year and are now disappointed? Yes, its concept and development over decades is worthy of an award, no question about it, and in the midst of the pandemic it seems obvious. That is why, for some time now, a real shower of prizes has been falling on researchers, whom the general public had hardly noticed before. And she seems to have forgotten that RNA was already among the Nobel Prize topics in 2020, when Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna were honored for their discovery of the CRISPR / Cas gene scissors. Admittedly, not in medicine, but

in the field of chemistry, which receives less attention.

This year it is promptly different, which on the one hand is due to the nationality of the winners, two Germans cavort in physics and chemistry, on the other hand in medicine. But you couldn't really ask for anything more beautiful, especially in a pandemic that keeps us all at a distance: The Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology goes to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for the discovery of those receptors that feel heat, cold and pressure to us permit. Molecular complexes that translate temperature or mechanical stimuli into electrical impulses and are therefore crucial for the perception of our environment.

Make us human, because what would we be without the ion channels of the piezo group, through which touch only shows its effect? How peculiar the sense of touch is can be seen in how difficult it is to teach robots the right feeling for the pressure that has to be exerted with grippers or hands. If that seems too mundane to you, you are welcome to think about the role pressure plays in the body for breathing, blood vessels and cells or the bladder. If the responsible receptors are known, this knowledge can also be used for therapies, be it only in the form of cold gel and heat patches, in order to biochemically stimulate the right receptor, TRPM8 or TRPV1: Instead of the temperatures, menthol or capsaicin, the chilli, stimulates - Sharpening material, the molecular sensors on. Fortunately, a vaccine is not always necessaryso glad we can be that they exist.