The Nobel Assembly awarded the 2026 medicine prize to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries on light-gated ion channels that became optogenetics.
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. The prize is 12 million Swedish kronor, to be shared equally.
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 Deisseroth turned that protein into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells.
AP reported the laureates as Deisseroth, 54, Hegemann, 71, and Nagel, 73. The assembly said the method is used in laboratories to study how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviour.
The award opens this year's Nobel announcements in Stockholm. The assembly said the work laid a foundation for a new era in neuroscience by letting researchers turn nerve cells and circuits on and off with light.
Further details are posted on nobelprize.org. The assembly listed press contacts Pernilla Witte and Thomas Perlmann.