Nobel Prize in Medicine goes to three optogenetics pioneers

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University, Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University in Berlin and Georg Nagel of the University of Würzburg for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, a method that uses light to switch nerve cells on or off. The committee says the method "is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain's mysteries." The prize is worth 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million).