What researchers can investigate
Optogenetics lets researchers alter activity in selected cells and then observe what changes. A review in Nature Reviews Neuroscience describes it as a way to test whether brain activity causes particular behaviors, and notes that researchers can use it alongside electrophysiology and pharmacology.
The Nobel Assembly says researchers have used the method to study neural circuits involved in specific memories, feelings and behaviors relevant to neurological and psychiatric disorders. It also points to research using optogenetics in attempts to restore sight in people with visual impairment.
From research to patient studies
A protocol in ClinicalTrials.gov identifies intravitreal RST-001 as the subject of a Phase I/IIa, open-label, dose-escalation study in patients with advanced retinitis pigmentosa. The protocol documents a clinical study design; it does not by itself establish that the approach restores sight.
The biological basis
The tool grew out of research on a single-celled green alga. Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel identified channelrhodopsin, a protein through which blue light can open a channel and let charged ions move, producing an electrical impulse. When cells are given the protein, the Nobel Assembly says, they can respond to light.
Karl Deisseroth applied the protein’s light responsiveness to nerve cells, using its gene to make their activity controllable with light. He published the work in 2005 and demonstrated the approach in the brains of living mice in 2007, according to the Nobel Assembly. The method is known as optogenetics.
The 2026 medicine laureates
The Nobel Assembly awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Deisseroth, Hegemann and Nagel for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. The prize totals 12 million Swedish kronor, divided equally among the three, the announcement says.
Deisseroth is a professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Hegemann is Hertie Senior Professor of Neuroscience at Humboldt University of Berlin, and Nagel is a professor of molecular plant physiology at the University of Würzburg, according to the Nobel Assembly.
