Nobel in Medicine honors optogenetics, using light on neurons

The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute announced on Oct. 5 that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University, and to Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel, of German universities. They are honored for optogenetics, a method that combines genetics and light.

The technique makes it possible to activate or silence specific neurons inside a living brain. According to STAT, it is used to identify which cells are involved in memory, emotion or movement. It grew out of a discovery in algae: channelrhodopsin, a protein that opens a channel in the cell membrane when light reaches it. Deisseroth told STAT that the method works like this: light is not used to collect information, but to make things happen.

For now it is mostly a research tool, used in animals. The most cited clinical case dates from 2021: a team from Sorbonne Université reported in Nature Medicine on a single patient with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease, who regained partial vision through optogenetic gene therapy. It was an early clinical trial and a proof of concept.

Wearing glasses that emit amber light, and after months of training, the patient touched a notebook on a table in 92% of attempts, counted glasses in 63% and recognized a box of staples in 36%. Without the glasses there was no improvement, according to the university.

Al Jazeera adds that researchers anticipate uses such as more precise cochlear implants than today's, which rely on electrical stimulation. That is an expectation among researchers, not an available treatment. The award ceremony will be held on Dec. 10.

The prize honors a research method and does not recommend or approve any treatment. It applies to scientific work on the brain; for the general public there is today no therapy derived from it, and anyone with an eye or ear condition should consult a doctor.