Optogenetics Pioneers Deisseroth, Hegemann and Nagel Win Nobel Prize in Medicine

STOCKHOLM, Oct. 5 (TodayViralUSA) — Three scientists whose work allowed researchers to switch individual brain cells on and off with light were awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday, for discoveries that have reshaped the study of how the brain controls memory, emotion and behavior.

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet said it was honoring Karl Deisseroth of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University, Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University of Berlin and Georg Nagel of the University of Würzburg “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”

“Optogenetics provides opportunities for mapping the brain in a way that we could once only dream of,” Per Svenningsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, said in the assembly’s announcement.

The prize carries an award of 12 million Swedish kronor, which will be divided equally among the three laureates.

From algae to the brain

The work began with a question about pond life. Hegemann set out to understand how Chlamydomonas, a single-celled green alga, is able to swim toward a light source, the Nobel Assembly said.

In the early 2000s, Hegemann and Nagel identified channelrhodopsin, a protein on the surface of the alga that opens a channel when struck by blue light. Charged ions then flow into the cell and generate an electrical signal. The two researchers found that the protein made any cell that carried it sensitive to light.

Deisseroth then inserted the gene for channelrhodopsin into rat nerve cells and showed that a pulse of blue light could make them fire, a result he published in 2005. Two years later, he demonstrated that the light-controlled switch worked in the brains of living mice.

The technique, now known as optogenetics, has spread rapidly through laboratories worldwide. Researchers have used it to trace the neural circuits behind specific memories, feelings and behaviors linked to neurological and psychiatric disorders, and clinical teams are testing the approach in efforts to restore sight to people with visual impairment, according to the Nobel Assembly.

Long-anticipated recognition

Deisseroth, born in 1971, earned his Ph.D. and medical degree at Stanford, where he is a professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Hegemann, born in 1954, made his prize-winning discoveries at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany, while Nagel, born in 1953, did his at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics in Frankfurt.

The field had already drawn major honors. All three laureates were among six scientists who shared the 2013 Brain Prize for the invention and refinement of optogenetics, and Deisseroth and Hegemann shared the 2021 Lasker Basic Medical Research Award with Dieter Oesterhelt for related work on light-sensitive microbial proteins.

The medicine prize is the first of this year’s Nobel awards. Announcements in the remaining categories continue through Oct. 12.