Agadir – American scientist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel have won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for developing optogenetics, a technique that allows researchers to control individual nerve cells using light.
The Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet announced the award today, recognizing the trio for their “discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”
The technology has transformed neuroscience by allowing scientists to activate or deactivate specific neurons in living organisms with high precision. Researchers can use it to study how individual brain cells and neural circuits influence behavior and disease.
Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Assembly, said optogenetics makes it possible to switch the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain on or off. The approach has given scientists a new way to study how the brain processes information and how different neurons interact.
The three laureates will share a prize of 12 million Swedish kronor, worth about $1.2 million.
From algae to the brain
The research behind the award began with studies of how microscopic algae respond to light.
Hegemann investigated the green alga Chlamydomonas and sought to understand how it detects light. His work, together with Nagel and other researchers, led to the identification of light-sensitive proteins known as channelrhodopsins. These proteins can open channels when exposed to light, generating electrical activity inside cells.
In the early 2000s, Hegemann and Nagel showed that these light-sensitive proteins could function in other cells. Their findings created the foundation for using light to control electrical activity in cells that do not normally respond to light.
Deisseroth then helped bring the technique into neuroscience. His research demonstrated that light-sensitive proteins could be introduced into neurons and used to control their activity, laying the foundation for modern optogenetics.
The technique has since allowed researchers to study individual neurons and neural circuits with a level of precision that was previously difficult to achieve.
Beyond theory, researchers are studying whether optogenetics could eventually help treat neurological and other disorders.
Scientists have used the technique in animal models to investigate conditions including Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, addiction, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease.
The research can help identify which cells and neural circuits become active during disease and how they contribute to symptoms.
