Nobel Prize in Medicine 2026: Trio win for breakthrough in optogenetics, unlocking how brain forms memories
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded on Monday to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”, a technique that allows scientists to control the activity of nerve cells using light.The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet said the three scientists had laid “the foundation of a new era in neuroscience”. Their work has enabled researchers to switch individual nerve cells on or off in living brains, helping them study how neural circuits control memories, feelings and behaviours.Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin-1 and channelrhodopsin-2, a light-sensitive protein found in the single-celled alga Chlamydomonas. When exposed to blue light, the protein opens a channel through the cell membrane, allowing positively charged ions to flow in and generate an electrical signal.Karl Deisseroth later transformed this discovery into a tool for controlling nerve cells. In 2005, his research group introduced the gene for channelrhodopsin-2 into rat nerve cells grown in the laboratory. When exposed to blue light, the cells generated nerve signals. In 2007, Deisseroth and his team demonstrated that the technique could be used to control nerve cells in the brains of living mice.The method, which came to be known as optogenetics, has since become a widely used tool in neuroscience. Researchers have used it to identify neural circuits involved in functions including pain, social behaviour, thirst, food consumption, reward and attention, as well as to investigate neurological and psychiatric disorders.“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.The work has also opened possible medical applications. Researchers are studying optogenetic approaches to restore vision in people with severe visual impairment, while the technique is also being investigated as a way to improve the precision of cochlear implants.Here is more info about the winners:Karl DeisserothKarl Deisseroth, born in Boston in 1971, is affiliated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University in the US. He is the DH Chen Professor and a professor of bioengineering and psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Stanford.Deisseroth received his PhD from Stanford University in 1998 and his MD in 2000. His work has focused on developing tools to understand how specific nerve cells and neural circuits function in the living brain.Peter HegemannPeter Hegemann, born in Münster, Germany, in 1954, is the Hertie Senior Professor of Neuroscience at Humboldt University of Berlin. He received his PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried in 1984.Hegemann’s interest in how the single-celled alga Chlamydomonas senses light led to the discovery of light-gated ion channels. Working with Georg Nagel, he showed that channelrhodopsins could make cells respond directly to light.Georg NagelGeorg Nagel, born in Weingarten, Germany, in 1953, is a professor of molecular plant physiology at the department for molecular plant physiology and biophysics – botany I, University of Würzburg. He received his PhD from the University of Frankfurt in 1988.Nagel played a key role in establishing that channelrhodopsins are light-gated ion channels. By introducing the algal genes into frog egg cells, he and Hegemann demonstrated that the proteins could turn light into an electrical signal in other cells, providing the crucial foundation for the later development of optogenetics.
