Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.
The decision was made on 5 October by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet. The prize is worth 12 million Swedish kronor, which will be shared equally among the three laureates.
Karl Deisseroth represents the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University in the United States. Peter Hegemann works at Humboldt University of Berlin, while Georg Nagel is based at the University of Würzburg in Germany.
Their research laid the foundation for optogenetics, a method that uses light to control the activity of nerve cells and study the functioning of neural circuits in the living brain.
How optogenetics emerged
The story of the discovery began with research into the single-celled alga Chlamydomonas. Peter Hegemann studied how the organism is able to move toward a source of light.
In the early 2000s, Hegemann and Georg Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin in the alga, a light-sensitive protein located on the cell surface. When exposed to blue light, it opens a channel through which charged ions enter the cell, triggering an electrical impulse.
The researchers established that transferring this protein into other cells could make them sensitive to light. This discovery laid the foundation for the subsequent use of light-gated ion channels in neuroscience.
Karl Deisseroth used channelrhodopsin to control nerve cells. He introduced the corresponding gene into rat neurons and used blue light to trigger a nerve signal. The results of the study were published in 2005.
In 2007, Deisseroth demonstrated that such a light-controlled switch could be used directly in the brains of living mice.
A new tool for studying the brain
The method of controlling nerve signals with light became known as optogenetics and quickly became an important tool in neuroscience.
It enabled researchers to study neural circuits associated with specific memories, feelings and forms of behaviour. This made it possible to investigate more deeply the mechanisms relevant to neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Optogenetic methods are also being used in research aimed at restoring vision in people with visual impairments.
According to Per Svenningsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, optogenetics has opened new opportunities for mapping the brain and studying its functions.
Laureates
Karl Deisseroth was born in 1971. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1998 and his medical degree in 2000. Deisseroth is a professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University.
Peter Hegemann was born in 1954 and received his Ph.D. in 1984 from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried. He is the Hertie Senior Professor of Neuroscience at Humboldt University of Berlin.
Georg Nagel was born in 1953. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Frankfurt in 1988. Nagel is a professor of molecular plant physiology at the University of Würzburg.
The research by Hegemann and Nagel recognised by the Nobel Prize was conducted at institutes of the Max Planck Society in Germany.
The Nobel Assembly noted that the laureates’ discoveries fundamentally changed the possibilities for studying how the brain works, allowing researchers to more precisely establish links between the activity of individual nerve cells and the functions of the body.
