David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian are winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discoveries about temperature and touch receptors in the human body.

The Prize was awarded to them by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Monday.

According to the Academy's announcement, the findings explained how heat, cold and touch can initiate signals in our nervous system

On the basis of the award, the Committee says David Julius used capsaicin, a compound in chili peppers that induces a burning sensation, to identify a sensor in the nerve endings of the skin that responds to heat, while Ardem Patapoutian used pressure-sensitive cells to discover a new class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs.

"The channels identified are important for many physiological processes and disease conditions," says the Nobel Committee, which also highlights that the knowledge is being used to develop treatments for a range of diseases, including chronic pain.

"These findings have launched intense research activities, leading to a rapid increase in our understanding of how our nervous system senses heat, cold, and mechanical stimuli. The laureates have identified essential missing links to our understanding of the interaction between our senses and the environment," the note concludes.

David Julius holds a PhD from the University of California and a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University.

He is currently a professor at the University of California at San Francisco.

Ardem Patapoutian was born Beirut, received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology, and has a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California.

He is currently a scientist and professor at Scripps Research, California, and a research fellow at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland.