2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine honours optogenetics pioneers

2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recognizes Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel for their pioneering work on channelrhodopsin and optogenetics. Official announcement.

The Nobel announcement explains: “The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026 is awarded for optogenetics — a method that makes it possible to show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviours in the living brain.”

Three landmark papers:

Channelrhodopsin-1: A Light-Gated Proton Channel in Green Algae — Nagel, Hegemann and colleagues, Science, 2002.

Millisecond-timescale, genetically targeted optical control of neural activity — Boyden, Zhang, Bamberg, Nagel and Deisseroth, Nature Neuroscience, 2005.

Channelrhodopsin-2, a directly light-gated cation-selective membrane channel — Nagel, Hegemann and colleagues, PNAS, 2003.

Image: Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach.