Nobel Prize winner in Medicine Karl Deisseroth: Surprise in the middle of the night

The news of his Nobel Prize in Medicine surprised US researcher Karl Deisseroth on his way to bed. “I just wanted to go to sleep, I was ready for bed,” said the 54-year-old, whom the German Press Agency reached by telephone on the US West Coast in Stanford. He received the call shortly after midnight local time. “I knew that I had to get up early to make my children lunch and take them to school in the morning.”

Deisseroth was honored together with the Germans Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their discoveries in the field of light-controlled ion channels and optogenetics. The Stanford University scientist said he was particularly pleased that the researchers can now bring their work to a wider audience. "What this kind of science can reveal about the brain should, in my opinion, interest everyone - whether scientists or not."

Optogenetics is a method with which cells - usually neurons - can be precisely switched on or off using light. “If you had any doubts before, you can no longer doubt that the behavior of animals is controlled by the activity of clearly defined cells that we can access,” said the researcher. “This is also philosophically significant because it shows that biology underlies everything.” Everything that can be imagined as a result of brain activity can, in principle, be investigated using optogenetics.

An experiment with mice showed that aggressive behavior can also be triggered: one mouse attacked another. This insight may also have significance for humanity: “The better we understand where our feelings come from, the more hope we have of turning them into a positive, overcoming problems and, where opportunities arise, allowing them to develop.”

He called the award “incredibly surprising and gratifying.” He doesn't yet know how he will celebrate. “But I want to meet with the people in my lab later today. I want to share this joy and this moment with you,” said the scientist. “I’m also teaching a course on optogenetics this quarter. I think this could be something very special for the students.”