The 2021 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine has been awarded to researchers who analyzed how our bodies sense temperature and touch.

David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian are the two US-based scientists who were announced as recipients of the prestigious award Monday. 

BREAKING NEWS:
The 2021 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.” pic.twitter.com/gB2eL37IV7

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 4, 2021

Julius is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco and Patapoutian is a professor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.

"Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival and underpins our interaction with the world around us," the Nobel Assembly said in a statement announcing the prize.

"David Julius utilized capsaicin, a pungent compound from chili peppers that induces a burning sensation, to identify a sensor in the nerve endings of the skin that responds to heat. Ardem Patapoutian used pressure-sensitive cells to discover a novel class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs."