The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026: Awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel "for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics"

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. Hegemann and Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, an algal protein that opens an ion channel under blue light, and Deisseroth turned it into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells, first demonstrated in rat neurons in 2005 and in living mouse brains two years later. The method now underpins work on neural circuits in neurological and psychiatric disorders and attempts to restore sight in visually impaired patients.