Georg Nagel
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Switching on brain cells: the Nobel-winning science of optogenetics
The Nobel medicine prize was awarded Monday to US psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their pioneering work in the neuroscience field of optogenetics. In optogenetics, scientists control neurones by stimulating them with light -- potentially unlocking breakthroughs for conditions such as dementia, depression and blindness. FRANCE 24's Monte Francis reports.
US and German scientists win Nobel medicine prize for work on light and brain
Stockholm: American Karl Deisseroth and Germans Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for developing optogenetics, a technique that uses light to control individual nerve cells in the brain. The Nobel Assembly of Sweden's Karolinska Institutet said Deisseroth, 54; Hegemann, 71; and Nagel, 73, had been selected for their "discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics." "This method 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. Anna Wedell, a professor in genetics and a member of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, said a new era in neuroscience had opened but it was only the beginning. "For the first time we can actually start to understand how the brain processes information and how different neurons interact across the brain," she said. The trio will share a prize sum of 12 million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million). Announcements will follow in the coming days on this year's Nobel physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics prizes, with the winner or winners of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to be announced on Friday. Deisseroth said he was still awake in the early hours when he was called from Stockholm. "I was not yet asleep, being a night owl, and now I don't think I'll be able to sleep for quite a while," he said. Hegemann said he was overwhelmed at getting a call from a number he recognized to be in Sweden: "It's unbelievable when you get this message." Nagel said he was sitting on a terrace "in a nice little village outside Naples" when the call came through. "I actually thought it would not happen, but some other people always told me this will happen," Nagel said. Breakthrough from algae A handout photo shows Nobel Prize winner in medicine Georg Nagel in Wurzburg, Germany, in this undated photo. Picture credit: Reuters Deisseroth was training to become a neurosurgeon when he encountered patients he could not help at a psychiatric clinic. That encounter - witnessing suffering he had no tools to treat - prompted a career-defining question: Why does the brain work so differently in different people? The answer would come from an unexpected place: an alga, and two German scientists driven by equally simple curiosity. Hegemann, fascinated by exploration and unknown territory, began investigating in the early 1990s how the alga Chlamydomonas reacts to light in half a millisecond. He hypothesised that a single protein both captured light and acted as an ion channel, and contacted Nagel to ask him to test it. "This was a good chance to do something new and exciting," Nagel said of the original call from Hegemann, which resulted in him injecting Chlamydomonas genes into frog eggs and discovering channelrhodopsin-2, a light-sensitive ion channel. In 2003, Nagel and Hegemann published findings showing the protein could be introduced into human cells to generate electrical impulses using light. Deisseroth showed the technique in rat nerve cells in 2005, and the method was named optogenetics in 2006. One scientist at Hegemann's Max Planck Institute in Frankfurt in 2007 recalled researchers taping optical fibers salvaged from Christmas decorations to microscopes. "We didn't really know how it worked, we didn't really have any tools," said Dima Kuzmin, a neurochemist at the time. "And it was massively exciting." Treatments under development A handout photo shows Nobel Prize winner in medicine Peter Hegemann in Berlin, Germany, September 24,2021. Picture credit: Reuters The three laureates' research is now providing insights about brain disorders. Animal models are being used to understand schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and addiction - conditions that affect millions of people worldwide and have limited treatment options. Deisseroth used optogenetics to control the movements of mouse whiskers by activating specific nerve cells in the motor cortex. He also used light to wake sleeping mice, confirming that specific nerve cells control wakefulness. "There are mouse models of dementia, epilepsy, addiction," Wedell said. "By understanding which cells are active in these diseases in mice, we can understand where to look in humans." Researchers are also applying the technique to try to restore vision to people blinded by retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive eye disease, by inserting a light-sensitive protein into the retina. They also hope optogenetics could improve cochlear implants, potentially allowing more precise stimulation of the auditory nerve than current electrical devices. "When you think about it in the retina, all patients need to do is open their eyes and you have the light," said Paul Bresge, CEO of US biotechnology company Ray Therapeutics, which is developing a therapy to treat retinitis pigmentosa. "So it makes a lot of sense as a potential therapy." The most advanced of the treatments are autism spectrum disorder therapy by a US-based biotech company MapLight, co-founded by Deisseroth, and a vision restoration medicine for retinitis pigmentosa by Nanoscope, also based in the United States, though both are still some way from reaching patients. Manuel Valero, researcher at Barcelona-based Hospital del Mar, where he heads the Neural Computation Laboratory, said optogenetics had "allowed us to push the boundaries between science and science fiction." "In laboratory animals, we have managed to control emotions, create false memories or even recover lost memories in models of Alzheimer's disease," Valero said. "Perhaps the great promise it has yet to fulfil is precisely one of its founding promises: its ability to treat diseases of the human brain." Each laureate's path reflected their distinct character. Hegemann developed an early fascination with exploration, viewing scientific research as charting unknown territory. Nagel had worked as a teacher, opened a cafe and taken up hang gliding as a hobby. The suffering witnessed by Deisseroth at the psychiatric clinic drove him to seek deeper understanding of the brain through research rather than clinical practice alone.
US and German scientists win 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine for pioneering optogenetics
Stockholm: American scientist Karl Deisseroth and German researchers Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel have been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries that laid the foundations of optogenetics, a technology that allows scientists to control nerve cells using light. The Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said the trio were honoured for their “discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”. Thomas Perlmann, Secretary-General of the Nobel Assembly, said the breakthrough has enabled researchers to switch individual nerve cells on or off inside a living brain. “This method is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain’s mysteries,” Perlmann said. Optogenetics has become one of the most important tools in modern neuroscience, allowing researchers to study how specific groups of neurons contribute to behaviour, memory, movement and disease. The technology is already being explored in clinical research. Scientists are working on restoring vision in people affected by retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited eye disease that causes blindness, by inserting light-sensitive proteins into the retina. Researchers also believe the technique could improve cochlear implants by enabling more precise stimulation of the auditory nerve. How the discovery was made The prize-winning work began in the early 1990s, when Hegemann investigated how the alga Chlamydomonas responds to light within milliseconds. He proposed that a single protein both detected light and functioned as an ion channel. Nagel later tested the theory by introducing Chlamydomonas genes into frog eggs, leading to the discovery of channelrhodopsin-2, an ion channel that opens when exposed to light. In 2003, Hegemann and Nagel demonstrated that the protein could be inserted into human and hamster cells to trigger electrical signals using light. Two years later, Deisseroth, working at Stanford University, successfully applied the technique to rat nerve cells. The approach was subsequently named optogenetics, launching a new era in neuroscience research. Shared honour The three laureates will share the 12 million Swedish kronor prize, worth approximately $1.2 million. Perlmann said all three scientists were “surprised and delighted” when informed of their award. “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,” he said. Nobel season begins The medicine prize traditionally opens the annual Nobel Prize announcements, with awards in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics set to follow over the coming days. The Nobel Prizes were established under the will of Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel and have been awarded since 1901, with only limited interruptions during the two World Wars. The awards ceremony will take place on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death, when recipients will receive their prizes in ceremonies held in Stockholm, while the Nobel Peace Prize will be presented in Oslo.
US-German trio wins medicine Nobel for work on optogenetics
The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to U.S. psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth and his German colleagues Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their work in the field of optogenetics.
Nobel Prize awarded for showing how nerve cells shape feelings
US psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth and his German colleagues Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel have been awarded for their work.
Oct 5, 2026 · byBBC
2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded for brain research tool called optogenetics
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel are the joint recipients of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, the…
Oct 5, 2026 · bySTAT
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded for Discoveries in Neuroscience
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel were awarded the prize for their work on light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.
Oct 5, 2026 · byThe New York Times
Nobel prize in medicine 2026 awarded for research on mysteries of brain
Three scientists to share 12m Swedish kronor prize for their work on ‘light-gated ion channels and optogenetics’ The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine 2026 has been awarded to three scientists for their work on investigating the mysteries of the brain. Karl Deisseroth of both Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University, Peter Hegemann of the Humboldt University of Berlin, and Georg Nagel of the University of Würzburg have been awarded the prize “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”. Continue reading...
Oct 5, 2026 · byThe Guardian
Nobel Prize in Medicine jointly awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel
The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded Monday to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their research into light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million).
Nobel prize for medicine goes to trio who developed optogenetics
The 2026 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine has gone to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for the development of techniques for controlling genes with light