Nordic Life Science 1
78 He set up his first independent lab at Scripps
Research, and he is currently a professor in the Dorris Neuroscience Center at Scripps Research in La Jolla, CA, as well as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He oversees a thriving neuroscience laboratory of researchers and graduate students. “These prizes are often given to one or two people, but I want to emphasize that there is a whole field of people working in this area,” he said in an interview with Scripps Research. “Specifically in my lab, there’s a big group of young, enthusiastic, smart scientists, graduate students and post docs who actually do the work. I share this with all of them, of course.” In the Scripps Research interview, Patapoutian says that he started out to investigate a fundamental question, how pressure and touch are perceived. These simple questions led to very complex discoveries, which continue today. “Mechanosensation is how cells talk to each other by force,” Patapoutian said. “We didn’t know the importance of pressure sensors to the body until we first found them. Blood pressure – hypertension is affected, as well as bladder fullness. We talk about a key that unlocks a door that opens to a room. These receptors are the key to the door of understanding biology and disease.” NLS PHOTO PAUL KENNEDY PHOTO SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE