The Science Scoop: David Julius

The Talk

From Peppers to Peppermints: how spices helped unlock the secrets of pain sensation

The Science Scoop

Please join us for the next session of The Science Scoop, a quarterly public lecture series hosted by UCSF Basic Sciences. Discovery for ALL!

We invite you to learn about how curiosity-driven research is leading to critical medical advances. Through engaging lectures geared towards a lay audience, premier researchers at the University of California, San Francisco will share the challenges and joys of making scientific discoveries and their impact on bettering human health. The audience will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the talk.

This is a FREE lecture open to the general public, and all are welcome. No tickets or registration needed.

The Speaker

David Julius, a native of New York City, received his undergraduate degree from MIT, where he worked with Alexander Rich studying mechanisms of tRNA aminoacylation. He then moved to the UC Berkeley for graduate studies with Jeremy Thorner and Randy Schekman, elucidating mechanisms of peptide hormone processing and secretion in yeast, followed by postdoctoral studies with Richard Axel at Columbia University, where he identified genes encoding members of the serotonin receptor family. David then joined the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, where he is currently Chair of the Department of Physiology.

His research is focused on understanding molecular mechanisms of pain and sensory adaptation. The Julius group has exploited the properties of natural products to discover a family of thermo- and chemo-sensitive ion channels that enable sensory nerve fibers to detect hot or cold temperatures and other noxious stimuli. With the aid of genetic, electrophysiological, and behavioral methods, they have determined how these ion channels contribute to pain sensation, and how channel activity is modulated in response to tumor growth, infection, or other forms of injury that produce inflammation and pain hypersensitivity.

David has served as a member of the NINDS / NIH Advisory Council (2014 – 2017), the HHMI Board of Trustees (2021- present), and as Editor of the Annual Review of Physiology (2007-2018). Among other awards, David has received the Shaw Prize in Life Sciences and Medicine (2010), the Canada Gairdner International Award (2017), the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2020), and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2021).

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Host or Publisher UCSF Basic Sciences