Ardem Patapoutian (born 1 October 1967)[1] is a Lebanese-American molecular biologist, neuroscientist, and Nobel Prize laureate of Armenian descent.

Patapoutian is a neuroscience professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.

[14] Patapoutian, a naturalized US citizen,[5] lives in Del Mar, California with his wife Nancy Hong, a venture capitalist, and son, Luca.

[24][25] PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 channels have been shown to regulate additional important physiological processes including blood pressure, respiration and urinary bladder control.

[24] Patapoutian also made significant contributions to the identification of novel ion channels and receptors that are activated by temperature, mechanical forces or increased cell volume.

More recent work uses functional genomics techniques to identify and characterize mechanosensitive ion channels (mechanotransduction).

[39] In 2021, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with David Julius for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.

[3][40][41] In October 2021 President of Lebanon Michel Aoun awarded Patapoutian the Lebanese Order of Merit.