Ardem Patapoutian

Ardem Patapoutian (Armenian: Արտեմ Փաթափութեան) was born to a Lebanese Armenian family in Beirut, Lebanon.^[2][4][5] His father, Sarkis Patapoutian (better known by the pen name Sarkis Vahakn [hy]), is a poet and an accountant,^[6] while his mother, Haiguhi Adjemian, was the principal of an Armenian school in Beirut. He has a brother, Ara, and a sister, Houry.^[7] His grandparents settled in Lebanon from Hadjin after surviving the Armenian Genocide.^[8][9][10]

He is childhood friends with journalist and author Vicken Cheterian.^[11] He attended the Demirdjian and Hovagimian Armenian schools in Beirut.^[11] He enrolled at the American University of Beirut for a year before emigrating to the United States in 1986.^[5][12] He received a B.S. degree in cell and developmental biology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1990 and a Ph.D. degree in biology from the California Institute of Technology in 1996 under direction of Barbara Wold.^[13][5][14]

As a postdoctoral fellow, Patapoutian worked with Louis F. Reichardt at the University of California, San Francisco.^[15] In 2000, he became an assistant professor at the Scripps Research Institute.^[16] Between 2000 and 2014, he had an additional research position for the Novartis Research Foundation.^[17] Since 2014, Patapoutian has been an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).^[14]

Patapoutian, a naturalized US citizen,^[5] lives in Del Mar, California with his wife Nancy Hong, a venture capitalist, and son, Luca.^{[18][19][20][21]}

Patapoutian's research is into the biological receptors for temperature and touch (nociception).^[3] The knowledge is used to develop treatments for a range of diseases, including chronic pain.^[22] The discoveries made it possible to understand how heat, cold and mechanical forces trigger nerve impulses.^[22]

Patapoutian researches the signal transduction of sensors. Patapoutian and co-workers inactivated genes.^[23] In this way, they identified the gene, that made the cells insensitive for touch.^[23] The channel for the sense of touch was called PIEZO1 (transl. pressure).^[23] Through its similarity to PIEZO1, a second gene was discovered and named PIEZO2.^[24] This ion channel, the more important of the two mechanoreceptors, is essential for the sense of touch.^[24][25] PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 channels have been shown to regulate additional important physiological processes including blood pressure, respiration and urinary bladder control.^[24]

Patapoutian also made significant contributions to the identification of novel ion channels and receptors that are activated by temperature, mechanical forces or increased cell volume.^[26][27] Patapoutian and his collaborators were able to show that these ion channels play an outstanding role in the sensation of temperature, in the sensation of touch, in proprioception,^[28] in the sensation of pain and in the regulation of vascular tone. More recent work uses functional genomics techniques to identify and characterize mechanosensitive ion channels (mechanotransduction).^{[16][29][30][31]}

 

 

Patapoutian has an h-index of 68 according to Google Scholar,^[32] and of 63 according to Scopus^[33] (As of May 2020^[update]). He has been a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 2016, a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2017^[34] and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2020.^[35]

In 2017, Patapoutian received the W. Alden Spencer Award,^[36] in 2019 the Rosenstiel Award,^[37] in 2020 the Kavli Prize for Neuroscience,^[38] and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology / Biomedicine.^[39]

In 2021, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with David Julius for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.^[3][40][41]

In October 2021 President of Lebanon Michel Aoun awarded Patapoutian the Lebanese Order of Merit.^[42]

In December 2021, Patapoutian received the American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award presented by Awards Council member Frances Arnold.^[43]

In 2022, Patapoutian was named by Carnegie Corporation of New York as an honoree of the Great Immigrants Award.^[44]

Patapoutian, the first Armenian Nobel laureate, received a hero's welcome when he visited Armenia in June 2022. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan awarded him the Order of St. Mesrop Mashtots,^[45] while the Armenian National Academy of Sciences elected him an honorary member,^[46] and the Yerevan State Medical University awarded him an honorary doctorate.^[47] Patapoutian gifted a replica of his Nobel medal to the History Museum of Armenia.^[48][49] HayPost issued a stamp dedicated to him.^[50]

• Coste, B.; Mathur, J.; Schmidt, M.; Earley, T. J.; Ranade, S.; Petrus, M. J.; Dubin, A. E.; Patapoutian, A. (September 2, 2010). "Piezo1 and Piezo2 Are Essential Components of Distinct Mechanically Activated Cation Channels". Science. 330 (6000). American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): 55–60. Bibcode:2010Sci...330...55C. doi:10.1126/science.1193270. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 3062430. PMID 20813920.^[23]
• Coste, Bertrand; Xiao, Bailong; Santos, Jose S.; Syeda, Ruhma; Grandl, Jörg; Spencer, Kathryn S.; Kim, Sung Eun; Schmidt, Manuela; Mathur, Jayanti; Dubin, Adrienne E.; Montal, Mauricio; Patapoutian, Ardem (February 19, 2012). "Piezo proteins are pore-forming subunits of mechanically activated channels". Nature. 483 (7388). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 176–181. Bibcode:2012Natur.483..176C. doi:10.1038/nature10812. ISSN 0028-0836. PMC 3297710. PMID 22343900.
• Kim, Sung Eun; Coste, Bertrand; Chadha, Abhishek; Cook, Boaz; Patapoutian, Ardem (February 19, 2012). "The role of Drosophila Piezo in mechanical nociception". Nature. 483 (7388). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 209–212. Bibcode:2012Natur.483..209K. doi:10.1038/nature10801. ISSN 0028-0836. PMC 3297676. PMID 22343891.

• Ranade, Sanjeev S.; Woo, Seung-Hyun; Dubin, Adrienne E.; Moshourab, Rabih A.; Wetzel, Christiane; Petrus, Matt; Mathur, Jayanti; Bégay, Valérie; Coste, Bertrand; Mainquist, James; Wilson, A. J. (December 2014). "Piezo2 is the major transducer of mechanical forces for touch sensation in mice". Nature. 516 (7529): 121–125. Bibcode:2014Natur.516..121R. doi:10.1038/nature13980. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 4380172. PMID 25471886.^[25]
• Woo, Seung-Hyun; Ranade, Sanjeev; Weyer, Andy D.; Dubin, Adrienne E.; Baba, Yoshichika; Qiu, Zhaozhu; Petrus, Matt; Miyamoto, Takashi; Reddy, Kritika; Lumpkin, Ellen A.; Stucky, Cheryl L.; Patapoutian, Ardem (April 6, 2014). "Piezo2 is required for Merkel-cell mechanotransduction". Nature. 509 (7502). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 622–626. Bibcode:2014Natur.509..622W. doi:10.1038/nature13251. ISSN 0028-0836. PMC 4039622. PMID 24717433.

 

Scholia has an author profile for Ardem Patapoutian.

• Ardem Patapoutian, PhD at Scripps Research (scripps.edu)
• The Patapoutian Lab (patapoutianlab.org)
• CV Patapoutian Archived October 4, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
• Ardem Patapoutian, PhD at Howard Hughes Medical Institute (hhmi.org)
• Ardem Patapoutian in Academic Tree (neurotree.org)