TL;DR
On October 5, 2026, Sweden's Karolinska Institutet announced the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarding it to US scientist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.
Event overview
On October 5, 2026, Sweden's Karolinska Institutet announced the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Per Xinhua, the prize was awarded to US scientist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.
Key facts
- Prize: the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- Announcement: October 5, 2026, by the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden (per Xinhua).
- Laureates: US scientist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel (per Xinhua).
- Citation: for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics; the Nobel Prize website said the laureates' research laid the foundations of optogenetics (per Xinhua).
- Significance: optogenetics uses light to control neuronal activity and has become a key tool in neuroscience research (per China News Service citing the Nobel organization).
Official sources
- Xinhua (October 5, 2026): Three scientists win the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- China News Service (October 6, 2026): 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine announced