IT·Science News

Nobel medicine prize for optogenetics: a light switch for brain cells, and what it can't do yet

The 2026 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine was awarded on Monday, October 5, to Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University of Berlin and Georg Nagel of the University of Würzburg. The Guardian said they were honoured “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”, and will share 12m Swedish kronor (about £900,000).

The work began with Hegemann's study of how a green alga, Chlamydomonas, swims towards light. He and Nagel identified light-sensitive proteins called channelrhodopsins, which let charged particles flow into a cell when hit by blue light. The method that grew from this lets scientists turn individual nerve cells on or off in a living brain.

Al Jazeera gave their ages as 54, 71 and 73, worded the citation as “for their discovery of a molecular switch for nerve cells”, and quoted Thomas Perlmann of the Nobel Assembly saying optogenetics “makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain”. The Korea Herald, carrying an AP report, said Perlmann reached all three winners by phone. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post described the winners as a US-German trio.

How each outlet framed it

• The Guardian — the science story from alga to brain, plus the prize's diversity record: 14 women among 235 medicine laureates.
• Al Jazeera — what the tool is used for: learning, fear, addiction and movement.
• The Korea Herald — the AP account, centred on the 'switch' for brain activity.
• South China Morning Post — the nationalities of the US-German trio.

What we don't know yet: How soon this becomes treatment. Al Jazeera said researchers hope it could improve cochlear implants, and Stanford's president spoke of “possibilities” for neurological and psychiatric disorders; neither describes an approved therapy.