Overview
- The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awarded Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel the 2026 Physiology or Medicine Prize on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, and the three will share 12 million Swedish kronor.
- Optogenetics is a laboratory technique that makes selected nerve cells respond to light by inserting genes for light-activated proteins so researchers can precisely turn those cells on or off with millisecond timing.
- Hegemann and Nagel identified the light-gated protein channelrhodopsin in green algae and showed it produces light-driven electrical currents, and Deisseroth adapted the gene to work in mammalian neurons to control brain activity in living animals.
- The Nobel committee and reporting noted early clinical work, including a reported case in which a channelrhodopsin-like protein plus light-emitting glasses restored some vision, but most medical uses remain experimental and require more testing.
- The prize highlights optogenetics’ wide impact on mapping circuits for memory, behavior and disease and has prompted discussion about other key contributors who were not named because Nobel rules limit awards to three people.