The joint candidacy of American biochemistsDavid JuliusYLinda Watkinsand the israeliBaruch Minke, considered three world references in the field ofneurobiologyand thepain study, has achieved thePrince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research, failed today in Oviedo.
The joint candidature of the three biochemists had already opted in last year’s edition for this same award, due to the contributions that each of them have made in the field of neurobiology and the channels associated with pain. Dr. David Julius works in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco. Linda Watkins, a professor of psychology at the University of Colorado, has focused on investigating pathological pain; and Baruch Minke of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has focused his studies on genetic mutations that affect sight.
The jury has been chaired by Enrique Moreno, head of the General Surgery service of the Hospital 12 de Octubre. Its members include Rafael Nájera, Ana Pastor, César Nombela, Eduardo Punset, Manuel Toharia, Antonio Fernández-Rañada, José A. Martínez Álvarez, Vicente Gotor, Flora de Pablo, Ignacio Cirac and Pedro Etxenique.
David Julius
David Julius, a biochemist, is a professor and chair of the Department of Physiology at the University of California-San Francisco. Considered the pioneer in the molecular analysis of nociceptors, it supports the hypothesis that nociception is a specific and individual sensory modality. Their research has provided evidence for the existence of the nociceptor as a sensory neuron subtype, responding to a wide spectrum of physical or chemical stimuli of sufficient intensity to cause pain.
Has identified thecanal TRPV1as the capsaicin receptor involved in the response to temperature as well as tissue injury and inflammation, aimportant finding for the treatment of chronic pain, neurogenic inflammatory syndromes and those associated with arthritis, cancer or asthma. Likewise, his work has made it possible to know and understand allodynia, pain in response to normally innocuous signals, and hyperalgesia, the excessive reaction to typically painful signals.
Baruch Mink
Baruch MinkeBiochemist and geneticist, since 1987 he is professor and director of the Department of Physiology of the Faculty of Medicine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a member of the executive and directive committees of said University. In addition, he directs the Max-Planck Society’s Wilhelm Kühne Minerva Center for the Study of Visual Transduction, and is an advisor to the Israeli Committee for Higher Education.
Minke ha sidothe first to identify a new class of ion channels, called TRP, the result of his research on phototransduction and vision inDrosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly. Likewise, he analyzed the biophysical and biochemical properties of TRP channels in the eye ofDrosophila and identified phospholipase C and the TRP channel as a common signaling pathway in numerous sensory systems, including nociceptors, thus laying the groundwork for the investigation of the molecules that explain the specialized pain properties of these neurons.
TRP channels, fundamental components of biological sensors, are involved inpain perception, thermosensation, mechanosensation,photoreception, thepheromone perception, thetaste perception, the perception of acrid components, thehomeostasis of Ca2 + and Mg2, theregulation of smooth muscle tone and blood pressure, lysosomal function, regulationcardiovascular and the control of cell growth and proliferation. Baruch Minke is a member of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) and the Israeli Association for Visual Research.
Linda Watkins
Linda Watkins, biochemist and physiologist, is a professor in the Department of Psychology and the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Colorado-Boulder (USA), which she joined in 1988. She has done her research work at the University of California-Davis and at the Medical College of Virginia. And is thediscoverer of a new pain agent, non-neuronal nerve cells called glial cells, key in pathological pain states and in those that occur after a nerve injury.
His research has been fundamental in the study of the causes why some current analgesic treatments, acting exclusively on neurons, fail to successfully reduce pain . Likewise, their work has determined how all classes of opioid analgesics activate glial cells causing them to release neurostimulating substances, which suppress the calming effects of these types of drugs and develop tolerance to them, dependence and even respiratory depression. Linda Watkins has discovered that these effects are not produced through the classic opioid receptors but through a different receptor, called TLR4, which is key in glial activation, which constitutes a new drug target.
Linda Watkins is a member of the International Society for Neuroimmunomodulation, the International Society for the Study of Pain, the Society for Psychoneuroimmunology (USA), the International Pain Foundation, the Society for Neuroscience, and the American Pain Society. , among other.
