Some text on this page is in English for now.
A Nobel for switching nerve cells with light
Research update, Oct 12, 2026
This year's medicine prize went to the people behind optogenetics. The home page of this site borrows its shape from their method.
What happened
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel Nobel Prize, 2026. The prize is for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics Nobel Prize, 2026.
What optogenetics is
Hegemann and Nagel found a protein in a single-celled alga that opens a channel when blue light hits it Nobel Prize, 2026. Deisseroth put the gene for that protein into nerve cells, and light could then set off a nerve signal Nobel Prize, 2026. Researchers now use the method to find which circuits in the brain carry which memories, feelings and behaviors Nobel Prize, 2026.
Why it's on this site
The home page works the same way, in a small way. Something new goes out. Only the parts you've switched on answer. Then you change the switches, and the next round is different.
Topics: Brain and nerves, Learning something new
Sources for this page
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet (2026). Press release: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026.
Official announcement: what an organization said about its own decision; not a study.
What we use: The 2026 prize went to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel "for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics". Hegemann and Nagel found channelrhodopsin in a single-celled alga; Deisseroth made it a light-controlled switch for nerve cells.
Checked Oct 12, 2026 · https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2026/press-release/