SfN Members Awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

SfN Members Awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Karl Deisseroth at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University, Peter Hegemann at the Humboldt University of Berlin, and Georg Nagel at University of Würzburg, Germany, have been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. The work fundamentally changed how neuroscientists investigate the brain. Deisseroth has been an SfN member for 33 years. Peter Hegemann has been an SfN member for 15 years.

Peter Hegeman and Georg Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, an algal protein with unique properties, found on the surface of the cell. When it is illuminated by blue light, a channel opens through the protein. Charged ions then flow into the cell, creating an electrical impulse. They found that regardless of which cell they put the protein in, those cells became light sensitive.

Karl Deisseroth built on that discovery by introducing the gene for channelrhodopsin into nerve cells from rats. By illuminating the cells with blue light, he was able to trigger a nerve signal. He published this breakthrough in 2005. Two years later, he made this light-controlled switch for nerve cells work in the brains of living mice.

With ability to activate individual types of nerve cells in the brain, neuroscientists around the world have identified neural circuits governing pain, social behaviors, thirst, reward, attention and more. Optogenetics has opened the door to new ways understand the brain that will inform both research and therapeutic efforts into the future.

The Nobel Assembly, consisting of 50 professors at Karolinska Institutet, awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Its Nobel Committee evaluates the nominations. Since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded to scientists who have made the most important discoveries for the benefit of humankind. The Nobel Prize amount for 2026 is set at Swedish kronor (SEK) 12.0 million (~$1.2 million) per full Nobel Prize.

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The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is an organization of nearly 35,000 basic scientists and clinicians who study the brain and the nervous system.