Marshall W. Nirenberg Lecture with Nobel Laureate Ardem Patapoutian

Monday, March 13, 2023, 2:00 to 3:00pm

NIH's annual Marshall W. Nirenberg Lecture, established in 2011 and part of the Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series, honors the legacy of Marshall Nirenberg and his work to decipher the genetic code, which resulted in his receiving the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Nirenberg was the first federal scientist to receive a Nobel Prize.

This year's lecture will be presented by Dr. Ardem Patapoutian, a professor of neuroscience at Scripps Research in La Jolla, Calif., and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He shared his 2021 Nobel Prize with David Julius of UCSF "for the discovery of receptors for temperature and touch." Specifically, Patapoutian has characterized the PIEZO1, PIEZO2, and TRPM8 receptors that detect pressure, temperature, and menthol. For this Nirenberg Lecture, Patapoutian will speak on his latest research on the structure–function relationships of Piezo proteins and their roles in somatosensation and interoception.