Nobel medicine prize honors light-controlled brain switch

Three scientists whose work lets researchers switch brain cells on and off with light won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday. Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel were recognized "for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics," the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet said in Stockholm.nobelprize

The laureates will split 12 million Swedish kronor, about \$1.2 million, equally. The Nobel Assembly said optogenetics "makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain" and is "now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain's mysteries".reuters+2

From algae to neurons

Hegemann's research started with a question about Chlamydomonas, a single-celled alga, and how it swims toward light. In the early 2000s, he and Nagel found channelrhodopsin, a protein on the alga's surface. When blue light hits it, a channel opens and charged ions flow into the cell, creating an electrical impulse. Any cell they put the protein into became sensitive to light.nobelprize

Deisseroth then inserted the channelrhodopsin gene into rat nerve cells and set off nerve signals by shining blue light on them. He published that result in 2005. Two years later, he got the light-controlled switch working in the brains of living mice.nobelprize

"Optogenetics provides opportunities for mapping the brain in a way that we could once only dream of," said Per Svenningsson, who chairs the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine.nobelprize

The laureates

Deisseroth, 54, is an American at Stanford University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Hegemann, 71, is at Humboldt University of Berlin, and Nagel, 73, is at the University of Würzburg. Both are German. According to the Nobel Assembly, Nagel did the prize-winning work at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics in Frankfurt.reuters+1

The Nobel committee says researchers have used optogenetics to find neural circuits behind specific memories, feelings and behaviors linked to neurological and psychiatric disorders. In clinical research, scientists are using it to try to restore sight in people with visual impairment. The New York Times reported that a committee member said the discoveries could help with treating blindness, depression, addiction and dementia.nobelprize+1

Nobel week begins

The medicine prize is traditionally the first Nobel of the year. Physics will be announced Tuesday, chemistry Wednesday, literature Thursday and peace Friday. The economics prize follows on Oct. 12. Last year's medicine prize went to Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for their work on peripheral immune tolerance.dw+2

The prizes will be handed out in Stockholm on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.reuters+1