The work that won the 2026 Nobel Prize in medicine for research into brain activity
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STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works.
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel have carried out research into light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. The Nobel Assembly lauded their work and said their tool is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain’s mysteries.
Deisseroth, 54, is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and Stanford University professor in California. Hegemann, 71, is at Humboldt University in Berlin, and Nagel, 73, most recently worked at the University of Würzburg, also in Germany, the assembly said.
The work that won the 2026 Nobel Prize in medicine
Optogenetics opened what the Nobel assembly called a new era in neuroscience following the discovery of a light-controlled switch to turn on and off nerve cells and circuits in the brain to better learn how it works. The research has started unraveling the pathways that lead to behavior and disease.
nobelprize
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BREAKING NEWS
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has decided to award the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026 is awarded for optogenetics – a method that makes it possible to show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviours in the living brain. Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel discovered a remarkable protein, channelrhodopsin, in a single-celled alga. Karl Deisseroth transformed the protein into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells. The laureates have laid the foundation of a new era in neuroscience.
Using optogenetics, researchers have been able to reveal neural circuits governing specific memories, feelings, and behaviours relevant for neurological and psychiatric disorders. In clinical medicine, researchers are using the method in attempts to restore sight in people with visual impairment.
Optogenetics has fundamentally altered our understanding of the brain. Every day brings new discoveries, helping to solve one of humanity’s great mysteries: how our incredible brain works.
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Author: desertedbeach
