Ardem Patapoutian, of Scripps Research/Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is a molecular biologist specializing in sensory transduction. His research has led to the identification of novel ion channels and receptors activated by temperature, mechanical force, and increased cell volume. His laboratory has shown that these ion channels play crucial roles in sensing temperature, touch, proprioception, and pain, and regulating vascular tone. Patapoutian was born in Lebanon in 1967 and attended the American University of Beirut for one year before he immigrated to the United States in 1986 and became a US citizen. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1990 and received his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology in the lab of Dr. Barbara Wold in 1996. After postdoctoral work with Dr. Lou Reichardt at the University of California, San Francisco, he joined the faculty of Scripps Research in 2000, where he is currently a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience.
He also held a position at the Genomics Institute of The Novartis Research Foundation from 2000 to 2014. Patapoutian was awarded the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Neuroscience in 2006 and was named an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2014. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2016), a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2017), and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020). He is a co-recipient of the 2017 Alden Spencer Award from Columbia University (with David Ginty), as well as the 2019 Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research, the 2020 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, the 2021 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, and the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (all shared with David Julius).
Patapoutian’s lecture, “How Do You Feel? The Molecules that Sense Touch” will take place on Monday, February 20, 2023.