Distinguished Lecture - Ardem Patapoutian, 2021 Nobel Prize in Medicine

May the Force be with you! Piezo channels in mechanosensory biology

Mechanotransduction was perhaps the last major sensory modality not understood at the molecular level. Proteins/ion channels that sense mechanical force are postulated to play critical roles in sensing touch/pain (somatosensation), sound (hearing), shear stress (cardiovascular function), etc.; however, the identity of ion channels involved in sensing mechanical force had remained elusive.

The Patapoutian lab identified PIEZO1 and PIEZO2, mechanically-activated cation channels that are expressed in many mechanosensitive cell types. Genetic studies established that PIEZO2 is the principal mechanical transducer for touch, proprioception, baroreception and bladder & lung stretch, and that PIEZO1 mediates blood-flow sensing, which impacts vascular development and iron homeostasis. Clinical investigations have confirmed the importance of these channels in human physiology. 

The conference is open to the public and will be given in English.

Ardem Patapoutian, PhD - Professor, Scripps Research Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (USA)

Ardem Patapoutian is a professor at Scripps Research, where his laboratory identified the molecules that sense temperature and pressure involved in touch, pain, and regulating blood pressure. He is of Armenian descent and was born in Lebanon. He immigrated to the USA in 1986. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1990 with a B.S., received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1996, and performed postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Professor Patapoutian joined the faculty of Scripps Research in 2000, where he is currently the Presidential Endowed Chair in Neurobiology and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He held a joint appointment at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) from 2000 to 2014, serving as director of Discovery Research. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2017) and a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020). He is a recipient of the 2020 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, the 2021 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, and the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.