DATE: October 5, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: STAT NEWS NEUROSCIENCE
TITLE: 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded for brain research tool called optogenetics
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel are the joint recipients of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden announced on Monday.
Deisseroth, a professor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University, Hegemann, a professor at Humboldt University in Berlin and Nagel, a professor at the University of Würzburg, Germany, developed a method that uses light, combined with genetic modifications of neurons, to switch on or off individual cells in a living brain. This makes it possible to show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behavior in the brain, and is being studied as a treatment for disease.
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