Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026 honours optogenetics

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for the discovery of light-activated ion channels and the development of optogenetics. According to the Italian National Federation of Orders of Biologists (FNOB), the laureates are Peter Hegemann (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Georg Nagel (University of Würzburg) and Karl Deisseroth (Stanford University).

The story starts with a single-celled green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, which orients itself towards light. Hegemann and Nagel showed that its channelrhodopsins are light sensors and ion channels in one protein, and that they also work in other cell types. Deisseroth introduced channelrhodopsin genes into neurons, which made it possible to switch neural activity on and off with light, and coined the term optogenetics.

Optogenetics is now a standard tool for mapping brain circuits and modelling diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy, and it is being explored in experimental therapies for retinal degeneration. A good example of how basic research on an alga can change the life sciences.

Our member organisations have also covered the prize: FNOB (Italy) and VBIO (Germany).