2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded to Optogenetics Pioneers
New Delhi — The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries involving light-gated ion channels and the development of optogenetics, a technique that has transformed scientists’ ability to study the brain.
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm announced the award Monday, recognizing work that has allowed researchers to control the activity of individual nerve cells using light.
Optogenetics has given scientists a powerful way to investigate how the brain creates memories, emotions and behaviors by allowing specific neurons in a living brain to be switched on or off.
“Optogenetics provides opportunities for mapping the brain in a way that we could once only dream of,” said Per Svenningsson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine.
Hegemann and Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, a protein with unusual light-sensitive properties. Researchers found that cells containing the protein could become responsive to light.
Deisseroth later introduced the gene for channelrhodopsin into nerve cells from rats. By exposing the cells to blue light, he was able to trigger nerve signals.
He subsequently adapted the technique so that light could be used to control nerve cells in the brains of living mice.
The approach became known as optogenetics and quickly developed into a widely used neuroscience research tool.
Hegemann’s research helped explain how certain microorganisms detect light through specialized proteins, while Nagel helped demonstrate that the proteins could operate as light-controlled ion channels.
Scientists have since used optogenetics to identify neural circuits involved in specific memories, emotions and behaviors, including processes associated with neurological and psychiatric disorders.
The technology is also being explored in clinical research, including efforts to restore vision in people with visual impairment.
Deisseroth is a professor of bioengineering, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University. Hegemann is a German biophysicist known for his research on light-sensitive proteins in microorganisms, while Nagel is a German neuroscientist whose work helped characterize microbial opsins and establish their potential as light-controlled ion channels. (Source: IANS)
