US psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth, along with German colleagues Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel, have been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their contributions to the field of optogenetics.
The three researchers will share the £900,000 prize for establishing foundational work in a new era of neuroscience. Their research has enabled scientists to investigate how neural circuits influence specific memories, feelings, and behaviors related to neurological and psychiatric disorders. The Nobel Committee highlighted that optogenetics has fundamentally transformed understanding of brain function and continues to generate new discoveries about how the brain operates.
Optogenetics works by using light to control the activity of individual brain cells, employing a specialized protein derived from algae. In the early 2000s, Hegemann and Nagel identified channelrhodopsin, the algal protein with these unique light-sensitive properties. Deisseroth subsequently developed methods to apply this protein to activate nerve cells in mouse brains, allowing researchers to study neural pathways and their functions.
The technique has enabled scientists to map brain regions in unprecedented ways and to observe interactions between the nervous system and other body systems, including those in the heart and gut. Beyond basic research, optogenetics is moving toward clinical applications. In ongoing clinical trials, researchers have begun using the approach to restore vision in patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that damages the eye’s light-sensitive cells. Early results showed that patients who received the treatment and wore specially designed glasses emitting light recovered some visual function when the therapeutic algae proteins were activated.
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