This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to three scientists. They are Karl Deisseroth of Stanford, Peter Hegemann of Berlin and Georg Nagel of Würzburg. They built optogenetics, the method for switching neurons on and off with light. Hegemann and Nagel found channelrhodopsin, a light-gated ion channel, in a single-celled alga that uses it to steer toward light. Deisseroth put the gene for that channel into rat neurons, then flashed blue light and made the cells fire on command. The trick turned the brain from a black box into something researchers could poke with precision. It is now standard in neuroscience labs for working out which cells drive fear, movement, memory or addiction. Clinical trials are testing it to restore sight. Few tools have reshaped a field this fast, and the prize is overdue. The three share 12 million Swedish kronor.
Source: Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, 5 October 2026
