The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Stanford (Calif.) University’s Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, as well as two German scientists, for their discoveries in optogenetics.
Dr. Deisseroth, Humboldt University of Berlin’s Peter Hegemann, PhD, and University of Würzburg’s Georg Nagel, PhD, were jointly awarded the prize “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics,” according to an Oct. 5 news release from The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet.
Dr. Hegemann and Dr. Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, a protein in a single-celled alga. Dr. Deisseroth then transformed the protein into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells, and published his breakthrough in 2005. Two years later, he made the light-controlled switch for nerve cells work in the brains of living mice.
Dr. Deisseroth introduced the gene for channelrhodopsin into nerve cells from rats and found he could trigger a nerve signal by illuminating the cells with blue light. The technique, now called optogenetics, allows researchers to control nerve signals with light and has been used to reveal neural circuits governing specific memories, feelings and behaviors relevant to neurological and psychiatric disorders. Researchers are also using the method in attempts to restore sight in people with visual impairment.
Dr. Deisseroth is a psychiatrist, neuroscientist and Stanford University professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He became an attending physician at Stanford in 2004 and a professor in 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The prize amount is 12 million Swedish kronor ($1.19 million), to be shared equally among the laureates.
