The Nobel Assembly awarded the 2026 medicine prize to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries on light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, sharing 12 million Swedish kronor.
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. Deisseroth is at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University. Hegemann is at Humboldt University of Berlin, and Nagel is at the University of Würzburg.
The Assembly said Hegemann and Nagel identified channelrhodopsin in a single-celled alga, and that Deisseroth turned the protein into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells. Reuters quoted Assembly secretary-general Thomas Perlmann saying the method makes it possible to switch individual nerve cells in a living brain on or off.
The prize is 12 million Swedish kronor, to be shared equally. Reuters put the sum at about $1.2 million. Science reported that Deisseroth said he missed the first call because he had just gone to bed and later spent the day writing to colleagues, including Hegemann and Nagel.
Optogenetics has been adapted in limited work to restore modest light sensitivity in some blind people and is being tested in conditions including epilepsy and pain, Science reported. The Assembly described the work as the foundation of a new era in neuroscience.
Physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics prizes are due later in the week. The Nobel Peace Prize is scheduled for Friday, Reuters reported.
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- Science quoted Deisseroth saying he was in a dreamlike state when the call came and missed connecting in time.
- Reuters quoted Thomas Perlmann describing optogenetics as a way to switch individual nerve cells on or off.