Scientists who developed method to control nerve cells with light win 2026 Nobel Prize in medicine
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel have won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries that made it possible to control nerve cells with light - a technique that has transformed research into how the brain creates memories, feelings and behavior and is now being explored as a way to restore vision.
The Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet announced the prize on Monday, awarding it jointly to Deisseroth of Stanford University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the United States, Hegemann of Humboldt University of Berlin and Nagel of the University of Würzburg in Germany.
Their work began with an unlikely source: a single-celled alga called Chlamydomonas.
In the early 2000s, Hegemann and Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, a protein on the surface of the alga that responds to blue light. When illuminated, the protein opens a channel that allows charged ions into the cell, creating an electrical impulse.
Crucially, the researchers found that cells that normally do not respond to light could be made light-sensitive by introducing the protein into them.
Deisseroth later introduced the gene for channelrhodopsin into rat nerve cells and showed in 2005 that he could trigger a nerve signal by illuminating them with blue light. Two years later, he demonstrated that the technique could work in the brains of living mice.
The resulting method, known as optogenetics, has allowed researchers to identify neural circuits involved in specific memories, feelings and behaviors, including those relevant to neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Researchers are also exploring clinical applications of optogenetics, including attempts to restore sight in people with visual impairment.
“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.
The three laureates will share the prize of 12 million Swedish kronor equally.