Nobel Medicine Prize Awarded for Brain Switch Research

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for research into how the brain switches nerve cell activity on and off. Their work on light-gated ion channels and optogenetics is now used in laboratories worldwide. The prize, announced at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, carries 12 million Swedish kronor.