Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel win Nobel Prize in Medicine for 'optogenetics'

Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday (October 5) for their discoveries in neuroscience. These scientists researched light-gated ion channels, a type of protein, to establish the field of optogenetics. Abdel El Manira, a member of the Nobel Committee that awarded the prize, said it is a pioneering technique that uses small lights to switch on discrete groups of neurons in the brain.

The discovery has shown the function of specific circuits in the brain, providing clues for the treatment of conditions including blindness, depression, addiction and dementia. The Nobelist, Dr Karl Deisseroth, holds a professorship in bioengineering and psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Stanford University. According to Professor El Manira, he and his research team engineered minuscule optical fibres capable of activating neurons in the brain, marking the first time scientists could trigger specific behaviours this way.

Discovery of protein to convert light into electrical signal

Dr Peter Hegemann serves as a professor of experimental biophysics at Humboldt University in Berlin, where, as Professor El Manira noted, he uncovered a protein with the ability to convert light into an electrical signal. Dr Georg Nagel, meanwhile, is a professor of plant physiology at the University of Würzburg in Germany.

Working alongside Dr Hegemann, Nagel found that these proteins housed a light-gated ion channel, a mechanism that produces an electrical signal upon exposure to light. Professor El Manira likened this discovery to "the switch," the very mechanism that enables neuroscientists to activate the protein at will.