Deisseroth, Hegemann and Nagel Win Medicine Nobel, Sharing £900,000 for Optogenetics
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Oct 5
Deisseroth, Hegemann and Nagel Win Medicine Nobel, Sharing £900,000 for Optogenetics
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Oct 5
Summary
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for Optogenetics, a technique the Nobel Assembly said opened a new era in neuroscience.
Using a light-sensitive protein first identified in algae, the method lets researchers switch specific neural circuits on and off, tracing memories, feelings and behaviors tied to psychiatric and neurological disorders.
Hegemann and Nagel discovered Channelrhodopsin in the early 2000s, and Deisseroth later showed how to use it to activate nerve cells in mouse brains with light.
Clinical trials are already testing the approach in Retinitis pigmentosa, with the Nobel Committee saying one patient regained some vision using therapeutic proteins and light-emitting glasses.
The trio will share 12 million Swedish kronor, about £900,000, as the committee hailed the work for helping explain how the brain interacts with the rest of the body.
Could a light-sensitive protein from simple algae hold the ultimate key to curing blindness and rewriting human memories?
Beyond restoring vision, will the ability to switch neural circuits on and off lead to the programmable control of human emotions?
How long before the sophisticated optical hardware transforming modern neuroscience becomes a standard commercial treatment for severe brain disorders?