Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel have been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The prize was awarded "for discoveries concerning light-sensitive ion channels and optogenetics."

As the Nobel Committee’s press release states, researchers have long dreamed of understanding how the brain forms memories, feelings, and patterns of behavior. Optogenetics is a method that allows for the activation and deactivation of individual nerve cells in the living brain. Today, it is used in laboratories around the world and has significantly transformed our understanding of how the brain functions.

The discoveries for which the prize was awarded were made at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried (Germany).

Information about the laureates

Karl Deisseroth was born in Boston in 1971. He received his PhD in 1998 and his MD in 2000 from Stanford University (USA). He is a professor of bioengineering, psychiatry, and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, as well as a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Peter Hegemann was born in Münster in 1954. He received his doctorate from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried in 1984. He is a senior professor of neurobiology at Humboldt University of Berlin.

Georg Nagel was born in 1953 in Weingarten, Germany. He received his doctorate from the University of Frankfurt in 1988. He is a professor of molecular plant physiology at the Department of Molecular Plant Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Würzburg.