Nobel Prize 2026 in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”

The three scientists were recognised for discoveries that made it possible to control the activity of nerve cells using light. Their work led to the development of optogenetics, a technique that allows researchers to activate or silence specific cells with light.

Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel discovered and developed the role of, proteins that allow charged particles to pass through cell membranes when exposed to light.


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Karl Deisseroth later helped develop optogenetics into a tool that could be used to control the activity of specific neurons with light. The technique has become an important method in neuroscience and has helped researchers study how the brain and nervous system work.

The Nobel committee lauded their work “for discoveries leading to optogenetics, which makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain.”

“This method is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain’s mysteries,” the committee said in a post on X.

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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million).

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded 116 times since 1901, with 232 individuals receiving the prize through 2025. The 2026 award takes the total number of Medicine prizes to 117.

The youngest person to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was Frederick G. Banting, who was 31 years old when he received the 1923 prize for the discovery of insulin. While, the oldest person to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was Peyton Rous, who was 87 when he received the 1966 prize for his discoveries concerning tumour-inducing viruses.

Last year, Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning how the immune system is regulated and distinguishes between harmful foreign substances and the body's own tissues.

Their work uncovered a key mechanism involved in keeping the immune system in check, known as peripheral immune tolerance. The findings have been important for understanding autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

The Medicine prize announcement on Monday is followed by the Physics prize on Tuesday, Chemistry on Wednesday and Literature on Thursday.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, followed by the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on October 12.