Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to trio for research into mysteries of brain

STOCKHOLM — American Karl Deisseroth and Germans Peter ​Hegemann and Georg Nagel have won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work developing a technique to decode the inner workings of the brain.The Nobel assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, announced the winners on Monday. Deisseroth of both Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University, Hegemann of the Humboldt University of Berlin, and Nagel of the University of Würzburg will share a prize of 12 million Swedish kronor ($1.2 million). The trio have been awarded the prize “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”.Optogenetics “makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain,” said Thomas Perlmann, Secretary-General of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet.”This ​method is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain’s mysteries,” Perlmann said.The German duo of Hegemann and Nagel discovered a protein in algae, known as channelrhodopsin, before American scientist Deisseroth “transformed the protein into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells,” the committee said in a statement. That work has “laid the foundation for a new era in neuroscience,” the committee added.By using this method, researchers can illuminate neural circuits which govern “specific memories, feelings, and behaviors relevant for neurological and psychiatric disorders.”David Pendlebury, head of research analysis at Clarivate’s Institute for Scientific Information, said the award highlights the “profound impact of a field that has fundamentally changed how scientists understand the brain and nervous system.”“The Nobel Committee’s recognition underscores the extraordinary influence of this work, which has transformed neuroscience by enabling researchers to use light to precisely control and study neural activity,” Pendlebury said.In clinical trials, researchers are restoring vision to ​people blinded by a condition called retinitis pigmentosa by inserting a light-sensitive protein in the retina.Researchers also hope optogenetics could ⁠improve cochlea implants, allowing more precise stimulation of the auditory nerve than current electrical devices.The physiology or medicine prize traditionally opens the annual Nobel announcements, with awards ​in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics to follow over the coming days.In the early 1990s, Hegemann investigated how the alga Chlamydomonas reacts to light in half a millisecond. He hypothesised that a single protein captured light and acted as an ion channel. Nagel tested this by injecting Chlamydomonas genes into frog eggs, discovering channelrhodopsin-2—an ion channel that opens when exposed to light.In 2003, they published that this protein could ​be introduced into human and hamster cells to generate electrical impulses using light. In 2005, Deisseroth at Stanford demonstrated the technique in rat nerve cells and ​the method was named optogenetics a year later.Perlmann said he had talked to all three laureates this morning, and that they were surprised and delighted.”All three said the same thing, ‌that they ⁠thought it was absolutely wonderful to receive the prize with the other two and they call them my friends. That it’s such an honour to receive them together. So that’s something they conveyed,” Perlmann said.The 2026 award is the 117th time the prize has been given. Out of the 235 laureates – including the latest winners – only 14 have been women.The five original Nobel Prizes were created under the terms of Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel’s will and have been awarded since 1901, with only limited interruptions, chiefly during World War One and World War Two.A sixth award, the economics prize, was established ​in 1968 by Sweden’s central bank, ​the Riksbank.The medicine prize has honored ⁠some of the most influential scientific discoveries of the past century, including Alexander Fleming’s work on penicillin, recognised in 1945, and Karl Landsteiner, who won in 1930 for his discovery of human blood groups.Last year, American scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred ​Ramsdell and Japan’s Shimon Sakaguchi won the prize for work shedding light on how the immune system spares healthy cells, ​creating openings for possible ⁠new treatments of diseases such as cancer.Nobel laureates are chosen by expert committees appointed by the prize-awarding institutions. The awards are presented in Stockholm, with the exception of the Peace Prize, which is handed out in Oslo, a tradition often linked to the union that bound Sweden and Norway during Nobel’s lifetime.More than 125 years after ⁠Nobel signed his ​will, the prizes retain many of their longstanding traditions.The celebrations culminate on December 10, the ​anniversary of Nobel’s death, when laureates receive their awards in ceremonies attended by Sweden’s and Norway’s royal families and are feted at gala banquets held in their honour.