Overview
- The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet named Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel as joint winners on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, and the three will equally split the SEK 12 million prize.
- Hegemann and Nagel identified a light‑gated protein called channelrhodopsin in algae and showed it makes cells light sensitive, and Deisseroth introduced the gene into nerve cells to create the technique used in living brains.
- The technique gives researchers millisecond‑scale, cell‑type specific control of neurons, allowing scientists to test cause and effect in circuits that underlie memory, emotion and behavior.
- Companies and labs are pursuing early clinical uses, most notably trials that insert light‑activated proteins into retinas and pair them with special light‑emitting glasses to restore some vision, but broader therapies remain investigational.
- The prize recognizes three individuals under Nobel rules that cap recipients at three people, a limit that left out other influential contributors and prompted public discussion while Deisseroth said he was stunned and briefly lost the power of speech on learning the news.