Lebanese-Armenian scientist wins Nobel Prize for medicine

An American scientist of Armenian-Lebanese roots won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday.

Ardem Patapoutian was honoured alongside David Julius for the discovery of receptors in the skin that sense temperature and touch and could pave the way for new pain-killers.

Their work, carried out independently, has helped show how humans convert the physical impact from heat or touch into nerve impulses that allow us to "perceive and adapt to the world around us," the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute said.

"This knowledge is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of disease conditions, including chronic pain."

Patapoutian, who was born in 1967 to Armenian parents in Lebanon and moved to Los Angeles in his youth, learnt of the news from his father as he had been out of contact by phone.