Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded for optogenetics breakthrough

Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering light-gated ion channels and founding optogenetics. The technique lets researchers switch specific neurons on and off with light and is already in early clinical trials for retinal degeneration.

• The prize went to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel
• The method builds on channelrhodopsin from the alga Chlamydomonas
• In 2012 optogenetics made mice reactivate a fear memory with light
• Optogenetics is in early trials for retinal degeneration