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Nobel Prize awarded for optogenetics research linking light to brain control

10/6/2026

Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel won the 2026 Nobel Prize for Medicine for developing tools that allow scientists to control brain cells with light.

Deisseroth, a researcher at Stanford University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, shared the honor with his German colleagues.

The award recognizes work in optogenetics, a technique that uses light to manipulate specific neurons.

In an interview following the announcement, Deisseroth described the brain as a network of billions of intertwined neurons capable of operating on the millisecond scale.