Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026 for optogenetics

05-10-2026 · English

Topics: Awards · 5 October 2026 Current Affairs (UPSC / TNPSC / SSC / RRB)

News

On 5 October 2026 the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel "for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics".

Key facts

Background

• The Medicine prize is chosen by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet; Physics and Chemistry by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; Peace by the Norwegian Nobel Committee (Oslo). Prizes are given on 10 December, Alfred Nobel's death anniversary. The prize is reported as SEK 12 million this year.
• First Medicine Nobel (1901): Emil von Behring (diphtheria antitoxin).
• Har Gobind Khorana (born in Raipur, Punjab, British India) shared the 1968 Medicine prize for the genetic code. Ronald Ross, born at Almora (India), won in 1902 for work on malaria.
• 2025: Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, Shimon Sakaguchi (peripheral immune tolerance). 2024: Victor Ambros, Gary Ruvkun (microRNA). 2023: Katalin Karikó, Drew Weissman (mRNA vaccines).

The science: Hegemann and Nagel found channelrhodopsin, a protein in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii that opens an ion channel when light falls on it, helping the alga swim towards light. Deisseroth put this gene into nerve cells; in 2005 he showed that pulses of blue light could switch neurons on within milliseconds. This method, optogenetics (light + genetics), lets scientists turn chosen brain cells on or off to study memory, depression, Parkinson's disease and vision.

Tamil Nadu link: Nobel laureates with Tamil Nadu roots: C.V. Raman (Physics 1930, born Tiruchirappalli), S. Chandrasekhar (Physics 1983) and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (Chemistry 2009, born Chidambaram). Ronald Ross worked for a time at Ooty (Nilgiris) before his 1897 malaria discovery at Secunderabad.

Source: CNN (5 Oct 2026); HHMI (5 Oct 2026)

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