If you happen to have a great love for Japanese food, especially sushi, then I am quite sure that you are also familiar with the wasabi burn – a mistake that many a novice have had to experience before he or she realizes that a large dollop of wasabi might not be encouraged, but rather, a slight dip is more than enough. Scientists have announced a breakthrough where they have managed to come up with a complete, 3-D model of TRPA1’s structure, which are the special proteins on neurons within your body that intend to keep your body from harm, and your body produces a whole lot of that when it comes into contact (or rather, taste in the case of sushi) with wasabi.
Basically, each time there is something bad in your body, TRPA1 will set the alarm bells ringing, and to figure out this unique wasabi receptor, a cryogenic electron microscopy has been developed. Making the camera itself is an extremely difficult task, but if it allows one to study TRPA1 in ways that were not thought to be possible of before, then it will allow scientists to be able to research and develop better pain medication in the future, since it could end up helping the medical world come up with structure-based inhibitors which are able to treat pain and inflammation.