Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to three scientists for their work ‘concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics’
- On Monday, October 5, 2026, the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to US scientist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.
- In the early 2000s, Hegemann and Nagel identified light-sensitive channelrhodopsin proteins in green algae Chlamydomonas; Deisseroth then transformed these algal proteins into a precise light-controlled switch for mammalian nerve cells in 2005.
- The three laureates will share 12 million Swedish kronor, approximately $1.2 million, for developing optogenetics, which the Nobel Assembly said 'makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain.'
- Researchers are conducting early-stage clinical trials using optogenetics to restore vision in patients with retinitis pigmentosa, while Nobel committee member Abdel El Manira noted the impact extends to treating depression, addiction and dementia.
- Over the past 20 years, thousands of laboratories worldwide have adopted optogenetic systems to map brain circuits and study psychiatric and neurological disorders, as the Nobel Assembly stated the three scientists 'have laid the foundation of a new era in neuroscience.
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A Stanford neuroscientist shared an incredibly sweet moment with his children after learning he had been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Karl Deisseroth was recognised alongside German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their work developing optogenetics, a groundbreaking technique that uses light to control specific nerve cells. But before […]
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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to scientists who developed a new technique to study brain cells. American Karl Deisseroth and Germans Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel developed optogenetics, which uses light to control individual nerve cells in the brain.The Nobel Assembly of Sweden's Karolinska Institutet said Mr Deisseroth, 54; Mr Hegemann, 71; and Mr Nagel, 73, had been selected for their "discoveries concerning ligh…
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