Nobel medicine prize honours US and German scientists for optogenetics work

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to American neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth and German researchers Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries related to light-based control of nerve cells, a field known as optogenetics. The Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said the three were recognized for identifying a molecular switch for nerve cells, work it said has transformed understanding of how the brain functions.

The article says optogenetics lets scientists activate or silence individual nerve cells with light, giving researchers a tool to study how specific brain circuits shape behaviors such as learning, fear, addiction and movement. Al Jazeera also cites Nobel committee officials saying the method is widely used in laboratories and could have future medical applications, including more precise cochlear implants.

Deisseroth is a professor at Stanford University in the United States, while Hegemann teaches at Humboldt University of Berlin and Nagel at the University of Wurzburg. The trio will share the prize money of 12 million Swedish crowns, about $1.2 million. According to the article, all three expressed pleasure at receiving the award together.

The medicine prize traditionally opens the Nobel announcements each October, followed by physics, chemistry, literature and the peace prize.