2026 Nobel Medicine Prize Awarded for Optogenetics Discoveries

Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel have jointly been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, which enable the control of nerve-cell activity using light.

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced the award on Monday at 11:30am Swedish local time, or 3:30pm Bangladesh time.

According to the official Nobel Prize website, the scientists’ research created opportunities to control signalling in nerve cells with light, opening new avenues for understanding how the living brain functions.

The Nobel Prize was awarded “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”.

Deisseroth is affiliated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University in the United States. Hegemann is a professor at Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany, while Nagel is a professor at the University of Würzburg in Germany.

Hegemann and Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, a specialised type of protein with distinctive properties. Their research found that cells become sensitive to light when the protein is introduced into them.

Deisseroth subsequently introduced into mouse nerve cells the genes required to produce channelrhodopsin. By shining blue light on the cells, he was able to activate neural or nerve signals.

Deisseroth later succeeded in applying the light-controlled switch-like method to nerve cells in the brains of living mice. The technique of controlling neural signals with light is now known as optogenetics and has had a wide global impact.

Optogenetics allows researchers to switch individual, specific nerve cells on or off in a living brain. Laboratories worldwide are now using the method to explore how the brain produces memory, emotions and behaviour.