Nobel Medicine Prize awarded to 3 scientists for optogenetics development

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The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel for research that enabled optogenetics. The method uses light-sensitive ion channels to control the activity of individual nerve cells in living brains.

The 2026 Nobel Prize season opened on Monday with the Medicine Prize being awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their research into light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. The prize was announced at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, kicking off Nobels week. Their work was lauded by the committee “for discoveries leading to optogenetics, which makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain.” “This method is now...