American physiologist and Nobel laureate 2021
David Jay Julius (born November 4, 1955) is an Americanphysiologist andNobel Prize laureate known for his work onmolecular mechanisms ofpain sensation and heat, including the characterization of theTRPV1 andTRPM8 receptors that detectcapsaicin ,menthol , and temperature. He is a professor at theUniversity of California, San Francisco .
Julius won the 2010Shaw Prize inLife Science andMedicine and the 2020Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences .[ 2] [ 3] In 2020 he was awarded TheKavli Prize ,[ 4] and in 2021 theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly withArdem Patapoutian .[ 5]
Early life and education [ edit ] Julius was born to anAshkenazi Jewish family (from Russia) inBrighton Beach ,Brooklyn , New York City,[ 6] where he attendedAbraham Lincoln High School .[ 7] He earned his undergraduate degree fromMassachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977. He attained his doctorate fromUniversity of California, Berkeley in 1984, under joint supervision ofJeremy Thorner andRandy Schekman , where he identifiedKex2 as the founding member offurin -likeproprotein convertases .[ 8] In 1989, he completed hispost-doctoral training withRichard Axel atColumbia University where he cloned and characterized the serotonin 1c receptor.[ 9]
While at Berkeley and Columbia, Julius became interested in howpsilocybin mushrooms andlysergic acid diethylamide work, which led him to look more broadly into how things from nature interact with human receptors.[ 7]
Nobel Prize work He started his career as faculty at theUniversity of California, San Francisco in 1989.[ 10] [ 11] In 1997, Julius's lab cloned and characterizedTRPV1 which is the receptor that detectscapsaicin , the chemical inchili peppers that makes them "hot".[ 12] They found thatTRPV1 also detects noxious heat (thermoception ).[ 12] [ 13] TRPV1 is part of a large family of structurally relatedTRP (transient receptor potential) cation channels. Animals that lack TRPV1 (using genetic knockouts of the protein) lose sensitivity to noxious heat and capsaicin.[ 14]
Julius's lab has also cloned and characterizedTRPM8 (CMR1) andTRPA1 , both members of theTRP superfamily. They demonstrated that TRPM8 detectsmenthol and cooler temperatures[ 15] [ 16] andTRPA1 detectsmustard oil (allyl isothiocyanate).[ 17] These observations suggested that TRP channels detect a range of temperatures and chemicals. David Julius's lab has also made contributions to the study ofnociception by discovering toxins that modulate these channels,[ 18] describing unique adaptations of the channels in diverse species[ 19] and solving thecryo-EM structures of numerous channels.[ 20] [ 21]
Julius’ laboratory also made pioneering contributions to the discovery ofpurinergic receptors , both theP2Y class ofG protein-coupled receptors , and the P2X class of ligand-gated ion channels.[ 22] [ 23] This included the cloning ofP2Y12 , the receptor forclopidogrel and relatedantiplatelet medications that are widely used to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.[ 24] The group also cloned the5HT3 receptor, aserotonin -activated ion channel and the target for drugs such asondansentron for the treatment of nausea and vomiting.[ 25]
Julius in 2022 From 2007 to 2020 Julius served as the editor of the peer-reviewed journal theAnnual Review of Physiology .[ 26] [ 27]
In 2000, Julius was awarded the inauguralPerl-UNC Neuroscience Prize for his work on cloning thecapsaicin receptor . In 2006, he was honored be TheInternational Prize for Translational Neuroscience of theMax Planck Society .[ 28] In 2007, Julius received theW. Alden Spencer Award by theCollege of Physicians and Surgeons , the Department of Neuroscience, and The Kavli Institute for Brain Science atColumbia University , and the Julius Axelrod Prize of theSociety for Neuroscience .[ 29] In 2008, he held theJack Cooper Lecture at Yale School of Medicine. In 2010, he won theShaw Prize for his work identifying theion channels involved in various aspects ofnociception . He received thePassano Award in the same year. In 2014, he was honored byJohnson & Johnson with theDr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research for discovering the molecular basis for pain and thermosensation. In 2017, he won theGairdner Foundation International Award [ 30] and theHFSP Nakasone Award .[ 31] He has also been awarded the 2010Prince of Asturias Prize forTechnical and Scientific Research , the 2020Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences ,[ 32] and the 2020Kavli Prize in Neuroscience (together withArdem Patapoutian )[ 4] and the 2020BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award .[ 33]
In 2021, he was awarded theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly withArdem Patapoutian for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.[ 34]
In 2022, Julius was awarded the UCSF Medal by theUniversity of California, San Francisco .[ 35] In 2023, he received the John J. Bonica Award, by the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA).[ 36] In 2025, Julius was awarded a Honorary Membership in theSociety of Toxicology .[ 37]
^ "Julius Lab at UCSF Mission Bay | David Julius Lab" .Archived from the original on May 23, 2013. RetrievedNovember 30, 2013 .^ "Julius Named to Receive the Shaw Prize" .ucsf.edu .Archived from the original on April 29, 2019. RetrievedDecember 5, 2016 .^ "David Julius, PhD 49th Faculty Research Lecture Award" .senate.ucsf.edu .Archived from the original on August 1, 2020. RetrievedDecember 5, 2016 .^a b "2020 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience" .www.kavliprize.org . Archived fromthe original on June 15, 2020. RetrievedMay 27, 2020 .^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021" .NobelPrize.org .Archived from the original on October 4, 2021. RetrievedOctober 4, 2021 .^ Hanau, Shira (October 4, 2021)."Scientist David Julius, whose grandparents fled antisemitism in Czarist Russia, wins Nobel Prize in medicine" .Jewish Telegraphic Agency . RetrievedOctober 4, 2021 . ^a b Mueller, Benjamin; Santora, Marc; Engelbrecht, Cora (October 4, 2021)."Nobel Prize Awarded for Research About Temperature and Touch" .New York Times . RetrievedOctober 5, 2021 . ^ Julius, David Jay (1984).Protein Processing and Secretion in Yeast: Biosynthesis of Alpha-Factor Mating Pheromone (Ph.D. thesis).University of California, Berkeley .OCLC 21756165 .ProQuest 303332941 . ^ Julius, D.; MacDermott, A. B.; Axel, R.; Jessell, T. M. (July 29, 1988). "Molecular characterization of a functional cDNA encoding the serotonin 1c receptor".Science .241 (4865):558– 564.Bibcode :1988Sci...241..558J .doi :10.1126/science.3399891 .ISSN 0036-8075 .PMID 3399891 . ^ "David Julius '77 shares the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine" .MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology . RetrievedOctober 7, 2021 .^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021" .NobelPrize.org . RetrievedOctober 7, 2021 .^a b Caterina, M. J.; Schumacher, M. A.; Tominaga, M.; Rosen, T. A.; Levine, J. D.; Julius, D. (October 23, 1997)."The capsaicin receptor: a heat-activated ion channel in the pain pathway" .Nature .389 (6653):816– 824.Bibcode :1997Natur.389..816C .doi :10.1038/39807 .ISSN 0028-0836 .PMID 9349813 .S2CID 7970319 . ^ Tominaga, M.; Caterina, M. J.; Malmberg, A. B.; Rosen, T. A.; Gilbert, H.; Skinner, K.; Raumann, B. E.; Basbaum, A. I.; Julius, D. (September 1998)."The cloned capsaicin receptor integrates multiple pain-producing stimuli" .Neuron .21 (3):531– 543.doi :10.1016/S0896-6273(00)80564-4 .ISSN 0896-6273 .PMID 9768840 .S2CID 2054891 . ^ Caterina, M. J.; Leffler, A.; Malmberg, A. B.; Martin, W. J.; Trafton, J.; Petersen-Zeitz, K. R.; Koltzenburg, M.; Basbaum, A. I.; Julius, D. (April 14, 2000). "Impaired nociception and pain sensation in mice lacking the capsaicin receptor".Science .288 (5464):306– 313.Bibcode :2000Sci...288..306C .doi :10.1126/science.288.5464.306 .ISSN 0036-8075 .PMID 10764638 . ^ McKemy, David D.; Neuhausser, Werner M.; Julius, David (March 7, 2002). "Identification of a cold receptor reveals a general role for TRP channels in thermosensation".Nature .416 (6876):52– 58.Bibcode :2002Natur.416...52M .doi :10.1038/nature719 .ISSN 0028-0836 .PMID 11882888 .S2CID 4340358 . ^ Bautista, Diana M.; Siemens, Jan; Glazer, Joshua M.; Tsuruda, Pamela R.; Basbaum, Allan I.; Stucky, Cheryl L.; Jordt, Sven-Eric; Julius, David (July 12, 2007). "The menthol receptor TRPM8 is the principal detector of environmental cold".Nature .448 (7150):204– 208.Bibcode :2007Natur.448..204B .doi :10.1038/nature05910 .ISSN 1476-4687 .PMID 17538622 .S2CID 4427901 . ^ Jordt, Sven-Eric; Bautista, Diana M.; Chuang, Huai-Hu; McKemy, David D.; Zygmunt, Peter M.; Högestätt, Edward D.; Meng, Ian D.; Julius, David (January 15, 2004). "Mustard oils and cannabinoids excite sensory nerve fibres through the TRP channel ANKTM1".Nature .427 (6971):260– 265.Bibcode :2004Natur.427..260J .doi :10.1038/nature02282 .ISSN 1476-4687 .PMID 14712238 .S2CID 4354737 . ^ Bohlen, Christopher J.; Chesler, Alexander T.; Sharif-Naeini, Reza; Medzihradszky, Katalin F.; Zhou, Sharleen; King, David; Sánchez, Elda E.; Burlingame, Alma L.; Basbaum, Allan I. (November 16, 2011)."A heteromeric Texas coral snake toxin targets acid-sensing ion channels to produce pain" .Nature .479 (7373):410– 414.Bibcode :2011Natur.479..410B .doi :10.1038/nature10607 .ISSN 1476-4687 .PMC 3226747 .PMID 22094702 . ^ Gracheva, Elena O.; Ingolia, Nicholas T.; Kelly, Yvonne M.; Cordero-Morales, Julio F.; Hollopeter, Gunther; Chesler, Alexander T.; Sánchez, Elda E.; Perez, John C.; Weissman, Jonathan S. (April 15, 2010)."Molecular basis of infrared detection by snakes" .Nature .464 (7291):1006– 1011.Bibcode :2010Natur.464.1006G .doi :10.1038/nature08943 .ISSN 1476-4687 .PMC 2855400 .PMID 20228791 . ^ Liao, Maofu; Cao, Erhu; Julius, David; Cheng, Yifan (December 5, 2013)."Structure of the TRPV1 ion channel determined by electron cryo-microscopy" .Nature .504 (7478):107– 112.Bibcode :2013Natur.504..107L .doi :10.1038/nature12822 .ISSN 1476-4687 .PMC 4078027 .PMID 24305160 . ^ Cao, Erhu; Liao, Maofu; Cheng, Yifan; Julius, David (December 5, 2013)."TRPV1 structures in distinct conformations reveal activation mechanisms" .Nature .504 (7478):113– 118.Bibcode :2013Natur.504..113C .doi :10.1038/nature12823 .ISSN 1476-4687 .PMC 4023639 .PMID 24305161 . ^ Lustig, K D; Shiau, A K; Brake, A J; Julius, D (June 1, 1993)."Expression cloning of an ATP receptor from mouse neuroblastoma cells" .Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .90 (11):5113– 5117.doi :10.1073/pnas.90.11.5113 .ISSN 0027-8424 .PMC 46665 .PMID 7685114 . ^ Brake, Anthony J.; Wagenbach, Michael J.; Julius, David (October 6, 1994)."New structural motif for ligand-gated ion channels defined by an ionotropic ATP receptor" .Nature .371 (6497):519– 523.doi :10.1038/371519a0 .ISSN 0028-0836 . ^ Hollopeter, Gunther; Jantzen, Hans-Michael; Vincent, Diana; Li, Georgia; England, Laura; Ramakrishnan, Vanitha; Yang, Ruey-Bing; Nurden, Paquita; Nurden, Alan; Julius, David; Conley, Pamela B. (January 11, 2001)."Identification of the platelet ADP receptor targeted by antithrombotic drugs" .Nature .409 (6817):202– 207.doi :10.1038/35051599 .ISSN 0028-0836 . ^ Maricq, Andres V.; Peterson, Andrew S.; Brake, Anthony J.; Myers, Richard M.; Julius, David (October 18, 1991)."Primary Structure And Functional Expression of the 5HT 3 Receptor, A Serotonin-gated Ion Channel" .Science .254 (5030):432– 437.doi :10.1126/science.1718042 .ISSN 0036-8075 . ^ Julius, David (2007). "David Julius for the ARP Editorial Committee".Annual Review of Physiology .69 .doi :10.1146/annurev.ph.69.013107.100001 . ^ "Editor of the Annual Review of Physiology - Volume 82, 2020" .Annual Reviews . RetrievedJuly 26, 2021 .^ "International Prize for Translational Neuroscience" .www.mpg.de . RetrievedSeptember 29, 2024 .^ "Julius Axelrod Prize" .www.sfn.org . RetrievedSeptember 29, 2024 .^ "David Julius – Gairdner Foundation" .Gairdner Foundation .Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. RetrievedNovember 1, 2018 .^ "The 2017 HFSP Nakasone Award goes to David Julius | Human Frontier Science Program" .www.hfsp.org . Archived fromthe original on November 9, 2018. RetrievedNovember 9, 2018 .^ "Breakthrough Prize – Winners Of The 2020 Breakthrough Prize In Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics And Mathematics Announced" .breakthroughprize.org .Archived from the original on December 14, 2019. RetrievedOctober 4, 2021 .^ "homepage" .Premios Fronteras .Archived from the original on September 21, 2021. RetrievedOctober 4, 2021 .^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021" .NobelPrize.org .Archived from the original on October 4, 2021. RetrievedOctober 4, 2021 .^ "UCSF Medal | Office of the Chancellor" .chancellor.ucsf.edu . RetrievedSeptember 29, 2024 .^ "John J. Bonica Award" .ASRA Pain Medicine . RetrievedSeptember 29, 2024 .^ Toxicology, Society of."SOT Honorary Members" .Society of Toxicology (SOT) . RetrievedMarch 29, 2025 .
Astronomy Life science and medicine Mathematical science
Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research
1981: Alberto Sols 1982: Manuel Ballester 1983: Luis Antonio Santaló Sors 1984: Antonio García-Bellido 1985: David Vázquez Martínez andEmilio Rosenblueth 1986: Antonio González González 1987: Jacinto Convit andPablo Rudomín 1988: Manuel Cardona andMarcos Moshinsky 1989: Guido Münch 1990: Santiago Grisolía andSalvador Moncada 1991: Francisco Bolívar Zapata 1992: Federico García Moliner 1993: Amable Liñán 1994: Manuel Patarroyo 1995: Manuel Losada Villasante andInstituto Nacional de Biodiversidad of Costa Rica 1996: Valentín Fuster 1997: Atapuerca research team 1998: Emilio Méndez Pérez andPedro Miguel Echenique Landiríbar 1999: Ricardo Miledi andEnrique Moreno González 2000: Robert Gallo andLuc Montagnier 2001: Craig Venter ,John Sulston ,Francis Collins ,Hamilton Smith , andJean Weissenbach 2002: Lawrence Roberts ,Robert E. Kahn ,Vinton Cerf , andTim Berners-Lee 2003: Jane Goodall 2004: Judah Folkman ,Tony Hunter ,Joan Massagué ,Bert Vogelstein , andRobert Weinberg 2005: Antonio Damasio 2006: Juan Ignacio Cirac 2007: Peter Lawrence andGinés Morata 2008: Sumio Iijima ,Shuji Nakamura ,Robert Langer ,George M. Whitesides , andTobin Marks 2009: Martin Cooper andRaymond Tomlinson 2010: David Julius ,Baruch Minke , andLinda Watkins 2011: Joseph Altman ,Arturo Álvarez-Buylla , andGiacomo Rizzolatti 2012: Gregory Winter andRichard A. Lerner 2013: Peter Higgs ,François Englert , andEuropean Organization for Nuclear Research CERN 2014: Avelino Corma Canós ,Mark E. Davis , andGalen D. Stucky
Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research
2015: Emmanuelle Charpentier andJennifer Doudna 2016: Hugh Herr 2017: Rainer Weiss ,Kip S. Thorne ,Barry C. Barish , and theLIGO Scientific Collaboration 2018: Svante Pääbo 2019: Joanne Chory andSandra Myrna Díaz 2020: Yves Meyer ,Ingrid Daubechies ,Terence Tao , andEmmanuel Candès 2021: Katalin Karikó ,Drew Weissman ,Philip Felgner ,Uğur Şahin ,Özlem Türeci ,Derrick Rossi , andSarah Gilbert 2022: Geoffrey Hinton ,Yann LeCun ,Yoshua Bengio , andDemis Hassabis 2023: Jeffrey I. Gordon ,Everett Peter Greenberg , andBonnie Bassler 2024: Daniel J. Drucker ,Jeffrey M. Friedman ,Joel F. Habener ,Jens Juul Holst , andSvetlana Mojsov 2025: Mary-Claire King
Astrophysics Maarten Schmidt ,Donald Lynden-Bell (2008)Jerry E. Nelson ,Raymond N. Wilson ,Roger Angel (2010)David C. Jewitt ,Jane Luu ,Michael E. Brown (2012)Alan Guth ,Andrei Linde ,Alexei Starobinsky (2014)Ronald Drever ,Kip Thorne ,Rainer Weiss (2016)Ewine van Dishoeck (2018)Andrew Fabian (2020)Roger Ulrich,Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard ,Conny Aerts (2022) Sara Seager ,David Charbonneau (2024)Nanoscience Louis E. Brus ,Sumio Iijima (2008)Donald Eigler ,Nadrian Seeman (2010)Mildred Dresselhaus (2012)Thomas Ebbesen ,Stefan Hell ,John Pendry (2014)Gerd Binnig ,Christoph Gerber ,Calvin Quate (2016)Emmanuelle Charpentier ,Jennifer Doudna ,Virginijus Šikšnys (2018)Harald Rose ,Maximilian Haider ,Knut Urban ,Ondrej Krivanek (2020)Jacob Sagiv,Ralph G. Nuzzo , David L. Allara,George M. Whitesides (2022) Robert S. Langer ,Armand Paul Alivisatos ,Chad A. Mirkin (2024)Neuroscience Sten Grillner ,Thomas Jessell ,Pasko Rakic (2008)Richard Scheller ,Thomas C. Südhof ,James Rothman (2010)Cornelia Bargmann ,Winfried Denk ,Ann Graybiel (2012)Brenda Milner ,John O'Keefe ,Marcus Raichle (2014)Eve Marder ,Michael Merzenich ,Carla J. Shatz (2016)A. James Hudspeth ,Robert Fettiplace ,Christine Petit (2018)David Julius ,Ardem Patapoutian (2020)Jean-Louis Mandel , Harry T. Orr,Christopher A. Walsh ,Huda Zoghbi (2022)Nancy Kanwisher , Winrich Freiwald,Doris Ying Tsao (2024)
International National Academics People