Overview
- The Nobel Assembly announced the prize Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, naming Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel and saying the three will equally share the SEK 12 million award.
- Hegemann and Nagel first identified channelrhodopsin in green algae as a protein that opens a light‑gated ion channel and generates an electrical impulse when hit by blue light.
- Deisseroth adapted that protein for mammals, showing in 2005 that light could trigger action potentials in neurons and by about 2007 demonstrated optical control of targeted cells in living mice.
- The committee said optogenetics moved neuroscience from mapping activity to testing cause and effect by letting scientists turn specific cell types on or off with millisecond timing, advancing studies of memory, emotion, movement disorders and addiction.
- While optogenetics remains mainly a lab tool, the Nobel release noted early clinical translation, including experimental retinal gene therapies paired with light‑emitting glasses that have produced partial vision recovery in at least one reported case.