Ardem S. Patapoutian

Since 2000, Ardem Patapouian has been a scientist at Scripps Research, La Jolla, California where he is now Professor. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 2014. His lab at Scripps is focused on "identifying and characterizing ion channels and other sensors that translate mechanical stimuli to chemical signals. These sensors are the basis of how we sense touch, pain, sound, and blood flow."

Patapoutian has solved an important problem in sensory biology, the molecular basis of mechanoperception. He identified the family of ion channel PIEZO receptors and showed that they are the initiators of sensing touch, and blood pressure. Additionally, Patapoutian has identified a mechanosensitive GPCR (Gprotein-coupled receptors) that plays in important role in vascular physiology. Patapoutian’s seminal research has laid the groundwork for an understanding of the sensing of mechanical forces.

In 2021, Patapoutian was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for "discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch."