New Delhi, October 5: The 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel and Karl Deisseroth for their work on optogenetics, a method that allows researchers to study how nerve cells influence memories, feelings and behaviour in the living brain. Hegemann and Nagel discovered a remarkable protein called channelrhodopsin in a single-celled alga, while Deisseroth developed it into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells.
Their work has laid the foundation for a new era in neuroscience. Understanding how the brain controls feelings, behaviour and bodily functions has long been a major scientific challenge. Researchers in the 20th century identified areas of the brain linked to different functions, but the available methods could not establish clear cause-and-effect relationships.
“Optogenetics provides opportunities for mapping the brain in a way that we could once only dream of,” said Per Svenningsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine. The breakthrough began with Hegemann’s interest in how Chlamydomonas, a single-celled alga, moves towards light. In the early 2000s, Hegemann and Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, a protein found on the surface of the algal cell.
When exposed to blue light, the protein opens a channel that allows charged ions to flow into the cell, creating an electrical impulse. The researchers found that cells became sensitive to light when the protein was introduced into them.
Deisseroth later introduced the gene for channelrhodopsin into nerve cells from rats. By exposing the cells to blue light, he was able to trigger nerve signals. He published the breakthrough in 2005 and, two years later, demonstrated that the light-controlled switch could be used in the brains of living mice.
The technique, now known as optogenetics, has had a major impact on neuroscience. Researchers have used it to study neural circuits linked to specific memories, feelings and behaviours, including those associated with neurological and psychiatric disorders. The method is also being explored in clinical medicine, including efforts to restore sight in people with visual impairment.
Optogenetics has transformed scientists’ understanding of the brain and opened new ways to investigate one of the biggest mysteries of human biology: how the brain works.
Also Read: British Airways Flight Makes Emergency Return To Heathrow After Rapid Descent
