Trio share Medicine Nobel for brain-mapping breakthroughs

Charles Daly, Bloomberg News on Oct 5, 2026

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Three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries that opened up a new era in neuroscience, allowing the mapping of the brain by controlling nerve signals with light.

Karl Deisseroth of the U.S., and Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel of Germany will share the 12 million-krona ($1.2 million) award for “their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics,” the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm said in a statement Monday.

Optogenetics is a method that makes it possible to show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviors in the living brain, the institute said, adding that it is now being used in laboratories around the world.

Hegemann, 71, and Nagel, 73, discovered a protein, channelrhodopsin, in a single-celled alga, and Deisseroth, 54, transformed the protein into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells. Their breakthroughs created a tool for basic research, the committee said.

That’s allowed researchers to reveal neural circuits that “govern specific memories, feelings, and behaviors relevant for neurological and psychiatric disorders.” The method is used in attempts to restore sight in people with visual impairment, for example.

Deisseroth, who hails from Boston, is currently affiliated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University in the U.S. Hegemann, works at Berlin’s Humboldt University, while Nagel is from the University of Würzburg.

The committee was able to reach all three laureates with the announcement.

Annual prizes for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace were established in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, who died in 1896. A prize in economic sciences was added by Sweden’s central bank in 1968.

The prize money this year was increased by 1 million kronor per category in connection with the 125th anniversary of the awards. When the first Nobel Prizes were given out in 1901, the amount was 150,782 kronor each.

Last year’s medicine prize was awarded to three scientists for discoveries on how the immune system self-regulates, which have led to potential therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases.

The laureates are announced through Oct. 12 in Stockholm, with the exception of the Nobel Peace Prize, whose recipients are unveiled on Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.