2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine goes to three optogenetics pioneers

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries that made it possible to use light to switch individual nerve cells on and off in a living brain. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet (Nobelförsamlingen vid Karolinska Institutet) announced the three laureates in Stockholm on Monday, recognising research that laid the foundations for optogenetics, a technique that has transformed the study of the brain. The American researcher Deisseroth works at Stanford University, while Hegemann is at Humboldt University of Berlin and Nagel is associated with the University of Würzburg in Germany. The three researchers will share SEK 12 million (about €1.06 million). How optogenetics uses light to control nerve cells Optogenetics gives researchers a way to control selected cells using light. In neuroscience, this can be used to activate or inhibit specific nerve cells and observe what happens when individual neural circuits are switched on or off. The discoveries behind the technique began with research into a single-celled alga. Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel studied a light-sensitive protein called channelrhodopsin. When exposed to light, the protein opens a channel that allows electrically charged ions to pass through a cell membrane. … The post 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine goes to three optogenetics pioneers appeared first on NordiskPost.