German duo and US scientist win Nobel Medicine Prize for optogenetics
05.10.2026, DPA
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to German duo Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel and US scientist Karl Deisseroth for their work in optogenetics.
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm announced the prize on Monday.
"Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel discovered a remarkable protein, channelrhodopsin, in a single-celled alga. Karl Deisseroth transformed the protein into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells," the institute stated.
"The laureates have laid the foundation of a new era in neuroscience."
Optogenetics is a method that makes it possible "to show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviours in the living brain."
Hegemann is based at the Humboldt University of Berlin, while Nagel is at the University of Würzburg, also in Germany. Deisseroth is based at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University.
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