ROCKVILLE, MD – The Biophysical Society is honored to celebrate Ardem Patapoutian, a molecular biologist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, CA, for his Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries of receptors that respond to pressure, touch and the positioning of body parts.

While Patapoutian originally set out to investigate a fundamental question, how pressure and touch are perceived, what he achieved answered one of the last frontiers of scientists’ efforts to describe the molecular basis for sensations. The mechanical pressure sensors he discovered control a wide array of biological needs, going far beyond the pain of a pinch or the pleasure of a caress, and extending to how one cell communicates with another, how we sense our body in time and space, how our organs move, and more.

“Ardem’s work shows the intrinsic value of basic research and exploring fundamental questions that may not appear groundbreaking at first glance. Yet Ardem’s work has provided avenues on which researchers can continue to build and may lead to breakthroughs in neuropathic pain,” said BPS President Frances Separovic, University of Melbourne, Australia. “It’s an honor to have a researcher of Ardem’s caliber as part of the Biophysical Society and we congratulate him on this amazing achievement.”

Thirteen laureates were awarded a Nobel Prize in 2021, for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.