Ardem Patapoutian: May the Force be with you! Piezo channels in mechanosensory biology

Ardem Patapoutian

Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Scripps Research

May the Force be with you! Piezo channels in mechanosensory biology

Sketchnote of Ardem Patapoutian talk entitled "May the Force be with you! Piezo channels in mechanosensory biology" - this follows the detail of the talk and represents aspects with blocks of text and icons of details I thought interesting - all connected by arrows indicating teh direction of flow of the talk.


Link to Nobel Prize summary


Some of the papers relevant to the talk:
Structure of the mechanically activated ion channel Piezo1.

Saotome K, Murthy SE, Kefauver JM, Whitwam T, Patapoutian A, Ward AB.Nature. 2018 Feb 22;554(7693):481-486. doi: 10.1038/nature25453. Epub 2017 Dec 20. PMID: 29261642 


PIEZO2 in sensory neurons and urothelial cells coordinates urination.
Marshall KL, Saade D, Ghitani N, Coombs AM, Szczot M, Keller J, Ogata T, Daou I, Stowers LT, Bönnemann CG, Chesler AT, Patapoutian A. Nature. 2020 Dec;588(7837):290-295. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2830-7. Epub 2020 Oct 14. PMID: 33057202 
 Piezo2 senses airway stretch and mediates lung inflation-induced apnoea.
Nonomura K, Woo SH, Chang RB, Gillich A, Qiu Z, Francisco AG, Ranade SS, Liberles SD, Patapoutian A.Nature. 2017 Jan 12;541(7636):176-181. doi: 10.1038/nature20793. Epub 2016 Dec 21. PMID: 28002412 

PIEZO channels link mechanical forces to uterine contractions in parturition.
Zhang Y, Kini SA, Mishkanian SA, Yarishkin O, Luo R, Seradj SH, Leung VH, Wang Y, Servín-Vences MR, Keenan WT, Sonmez U, Sanchez-Alavez M, Liu Y, Jin X, Lipomi DJ, Ye L, Petrascheck M, Frolova AI, England SK, Patapoutian A.Science. 2025 Nov 13;390(6774):eady3045. doi: 10.1126/science.ady3045. Epub 2025 Nov 13. PMID: 41231991 

Direct observation of the conformational states of PIEZO1.
Mulhall EM, Gharpure A, Lee RM, Dubin AE, Aaron JS, Marshall KL, Spencer KR, Reiche MA, Henderson SC, Chew TL, Patapoutian A.Nature. 2023 Aug;620(7976):1117-1125. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06427-4. Epub 2023 Aug 16. PMID: 37587339 
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