The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced on Monday. The three laureates will share prize money of 12 million Swedish kronor equally.
The Assembly said the laureates had laid the foundation of a new era in neuroscience. Their work produced optogenetics, a method that lets researchers show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviours in the living brain.
From pond algae to a switch for brain cells
The story began with Hegemann's curiosity about how Chlamydomonas, a single-celled alga, manages to swim toward a light source. In the early 2000s, he and Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, a remarkable protein sitting on the surface of the algal cell. When blue light strikes it, a channel opens through the protein, charged ions flow into the cell and an electrical impulse is created. The pair found that any cell given the protein became sensitive to light.
Deisseroth then took the decisive next step. He introduced the gene for channelrhodopsin into nerve cells taken from rats, and by illuminating the cells with blue light he was able to trigger a nerve signal. He published that breakthrough in 2005, and two years later he made the light-controlled switch work inside the brains of living mice.
A tool that reshaped brain science
The technique, now called optogenetics, spread rapidly through neuroscience. Using it, researchers have been able to reveal the neural circuits governing specific memories, feelings and behaviours relevant to neurological and psychiatric disorders. In clinical medicine, the method is being tried as a way to restore sight in people with visual impairment, the Assembly noted.
'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.
Deisseroth, born in 1971, is professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University in the United States. Hegemann, born in 1954, is Hertie Senior Professor of Neuroscience at Humboldt University in Berlin, and Nagel, born in 1953, is professor of molecular plant physiology at the University of Wurzburg in Germany.
The medicine prize opens the 2026 Nobel week. Physics follows on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, literature on Thursday, the peace prize on Friday and the prize in economic sciences next Monday, with the awards presented in Stockholm on December 10.
Sources: Nobel Prize press release, CNN
The Assembly said the laureates had laid the foundation of a new era in neuroscience. Their work produced optogenetics, a method that lets researchers show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviours in the living brain.
From pond algae to a switch for brain cells
The story began with Hegemann's curiosity about how Chlamydomonas, a single-celled alga, manages to swim toward a light source. In the early 2000s, he and Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, a remarkable protein sitting on the surface of the algal cell. When blue light strikes it, a channel opens through the protein, charged ions flow into the cell and an electrical impulse is created. The pair found that any cell given the protein became sensitive to light.
Deisseroth then took the decisive next step. He introduced the gene for channelrhodopsin into nerve cells taken from rats, and by illuminating the cells with blue light he was able to trigger a nerve signal. He published that breakthrough in 2005, and two years later he made the light-controlled switch work inside the brains of living mice.
A tool that reshaped brain science
The technique, now called optogenetics, spread rapidly through neuroscience. Using it, researchers have been able to reveal the neural circuits governing specific memories, feelings and behaviours relevant to neurological and psychiatric disorders. In clinical medicine, the method is being tried as a way to restore sight in people with visual impairment, the Assembly noted.
'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.
Deisseroth, born in 1971, is professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University in the United States. Hegemann, born in 1954, is Hertie Senior Professor of Neuroscience at Humboldt University in Berlin, and Nagel, born in 1953, is professor of molecular plant physiology at the University of Wurzburg in Germany.
The medicine prize opens the 2026 Nobel week. Physics follows on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, literature on Thursday, the peace prize on Friday and the prize in economic sciences next Monday, with the awards presented in Stockholm on December 10.
Sources: Nobel Prize press release, CNN
