Scientists win Nobel Prize in medicine for work on ‘light-gated ion channels and optogenetics’

The Nobel medicine prize was awarded to US psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth and his German colleagues Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their work in the field of optogenetics. The 2026 Nobel Prize season opened on Monday with the Medicine Prize being awarded to three scientists working on the mechanisms the brain uses to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells. Karl Deisseroth, 54, Peter Hegemann, 71, and Georg Nagel, 73, have carried out research into light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.

They are based at universities in Germany and the United States. The Nobel committee lauded their work, writing on social media that the method “is now being... The trio won the award for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.

Scientists ⁠to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel won the 2026 ​Nobel Prize in ‌Physiology or ‌Medicine.