Nobel Prize in Medicine goes to optogenetics researchers
Hegemann and Nagel receive award for method of controlling cells using light
Quick Look
The researchers Hegemann and Nagel, together with another scientist, receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the development of optogenetics, a method for precisely controlling neurons using light.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
The Nobel Prize in Medicine traditionally opens with the announcement of the annual Nobel Prize winners in Stockholm and Oslo.
Hegemann conducts research at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Nagel at the University of Würzburg. The researchers each receive a third of the prize money, equivalent to around one million euros. “Optogenetics offers opportunities to map the brain in ways we could only dream of before,” said Nobel Committee Chairman Per Svenningsson.
Optogenetics is a method that allows cells - usually neurons - to be precisely switched on or off using light. It combines genetic and optical techniques to specifically control cellular activity in living tissue. According to the Nobel Assembly, optogenetics can show how neurons in the living brain shape memories, feelings and behavior. The award winners laid the foundation for a new era in neuroscience. The process can now be used therapeutically - for example in ophthalmology.
More prizes will follow later in the week
The award marks the start of a week in which this year's winners will be announced in Stockholm and Oslo. The Nobel Prizes for Physics (October 6th), Chemistry (October 7th), Literature (October 8th) and Peace (October 9th) will also be announced. The Swedish Riksbank Prize for Economic Sciences will follow on Monday next week (October 12th). The latter has only been awarded since 1969 and is the only prize that does not go back to the Swedish industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel.
The remaining prizes are celebrating a special birthday this year: they are turning 125 years old. The awards were given out for the first time in 1901, five years after the death of the prize founder Alfred Nobel.
In 2025, three scientists from Japan and the USA, Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi, shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their research on the immune system. Their discoveries help develop new therapies.
This year, the coveted awards are worth twelve million Swedish crowns – the equivalent of around one million euros – per prize category. They will be presented on the anniversary of the death of the prize founder Alfred Nobel, December 10th, in Stockholm and Oslo.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
More Nobel Prize winners announced later this week
Very likely · Within days
Open Questions
- Who is the third prize winner who shares the prize money?
