OMM Redaksiyası
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been jointly awarded to US scientist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced the award, saying the discoveries laid the foundation for optogenetics, a method that uses light to control nerve activity.
Hegemann and Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, a protein with properties that make cells sensitive to light. They found that introducing the protein into different types of cells made those cells responsive to light, creating new ways to control cellular activity.
Deisseroth later introduced the channelrhodopsin gene into rat nerve cells. When he exposed the cells to blue light, he was able to trigger nerve signals.
He subsequently developed the technique to control nerve cells in the brains of living mice using light.
“This method for controlling nerve signals with light is now called optogenetics, and it has rapidly gained global impact,” the Nobel Assembly said.
