Speaker 1: (00:00)
Early Monday morning, script's neuroscientist, RDM pet a and got a call from Stockholm. He and his research partner, David Julius had just won this year's Nobel prize for medicine yesterday. We spoke about winning the Nobel prize its impact on Scripps research and San Diego's biotech community. Today we'll hear from the winner himself, our dam [inaudible] talks about the journey that brought him to the U S and a career in science and why he refers to his prize winning discovery as the elephant in the room. It's a pleasure to welcome Nobel prize winner, RDM pedal Poodie into the show and RDM.
Speaker 2: (00:41)
Welcome. Thank you, Maureen. We'll have to be here.
Speaker 1: (00:44)
Tell us about that phone call from the Nobel committee.
Speaker 2: (00:48)
It actually is quite interesting because as many of us, uh, with, with smartphones, uh, and non landline phones, I had my phone muted in the evening do not disturb. And so I had missed two, your four phone calls from Stockholm two in the morning. Um, interestingly, they had found my father's phone number in who lives in Los Angeles and is 94 years old. And they called him to ask how to get a hold of me. And it was actually my father who was able to call me and wake me up and tell me the news, which is a very, very special moment.
Speaker 1: (01:27)
I can imagine now because of your work and David Julius's work, we know more about how our sense of touch works. Why did you call that an elephant in the room kind of discovery?
Speaker 2: (01:39)
It's quite fascinating because, you know, for other senses, such as the visual system, we have figured out how, uh, the receptors and the cells work for decades and decades ago. And, and yet how we sense touch this enigmatic, uh, how, uh, proteins or receptors would translate mechanical information pressure into chemical signals was completely unknown. Many of these receptors existed, uh, but we didn't know what they were, and this is what we were very interested in. So my lab first worked on in parallel independently from David Julius on temperature sensors. And then the last 10 years, we've focused on pressure sets in both, uh, different aspects of touch sensation.
Speaker 1: (02:26)
And how would you like to see your work used in a practical application?
Speaker 2: (02:31)
We're, we're very interested in the possibility of translating this work. As you know, basic science takes a long time to translate into medicines. 10 to 20 years is the number often thrown out there and that's quite accurate. So I think we have from our work and our collaborators work, we have information that blocking these receptors could actually help people who suffer from New York pathic pain. The challenge is to find those blockers as well as to find a way to give it locally to areas that pain needs to be suppressed.
Speaker 1: (03:06)
Now, during the news conference you had on Monday with scripts, you talked about your personal journey coming from war-torn Lebanon to becoming an American Nobel prize winner. Can you share some of that with,
Speaker 2: (03:19)
You know, all of this still has to sink in and it hasn't, but it, it is a pretty incredible story for me being an immigrant from Lebanon. When I came to USA as an 18 year old, didn't even imagined that there could be a career in science. It does not occur to me. I didn't know this was a professional, of course I've heard of scientists, but it was just kind of a foreign concept that didn't apply to me. And so I started as a pre-med student and, um, worked in a lab to get a letter of recommendation for medical school and just love doing the basic science and kind of shifted my career. And it's, I feel extremely privileged to, um, been working in this area since then. Uh, I should say that I feel tremendous gratitude, uh, for this nation for accepting me for, you know, I went to UCLA on Pell grants, both federal and state contributed to my education. And it just so, so wonderful to be, to be part of the system where, where it recognizes the importance of basic research, just for discovery's sake, as well as for its potential for translation.
Speaker 1: (04:31)
What really got you about science?
Speaker 2: (04:35)
I think it was just, uh, um, the idea that there are things of how our body works, that we don't understand. And if you did the research and you did it the right way, you would actually be the first person ever to know how that works. And that's a thrill that's very, very difficult to explain by words, but once you feel it, it's, it's, it's very addictive and it's very gratifying.
Speaker 1: (05:00)
What do you think winning the Nobel prize actually means for you in your career?
Speaker 2: (05:06)
It's an added responsibility, I think, to, um, to have this incredible, uh, praise. And I actually feel very strongly that, you know, these prizes are given to one or two people, but there is so many people involved in this research. It's a community that we share and it's the work of many, but we're just representative. So it's a responsibility to, uh, to share the love of science with, with people and to acknowledge the people who have done actually the work in my case, it's a lot of, you know, brilliant young graduate students who are trying to get their PhDs and postdoctoral fellows both past and present who have been in my lab. Who've actually done the work with me.
Speaker 1: (05:50)
This must mean so much to your family, to your 94 year old dad, your whole family tell us that
Speaker 2: (05:57)
It is very special. And, you know, um, I come from a small Armenian community. There's a lot of Armenians in Southern California, and I can already see the outpouring of pride and, uh, uh, very, um, sharing the joy with me. And so I'm, I'm very proud of my heritage as well as my adopted country of the United States. And it is a wonderful day to celebrate science and discovery.
Speaker 1: (06:25)
There's also about a million dollars that comes with the Nobel and he plans for that money.
Speaker 2: (06:30)
I really haven't had a chance to think about that. I will share it with David and I will be very glad to share it. And I hope to be able to give a little bit of it back to the scientific community in maybe encouraging the students, uh, of, uh, minorities to participate in science, which I think is something we need more of in science.
Speaker 1: (06:51)
I've been speaking with Nobel prize winner, our Dem a [inaudible]. And I want to say, congratulations. Thank you so much for speaking with us.
Speaker 2: (06:59)
It was a pleasure, Maureen. Thank you.
