Nobel Prize for Medicine goes to two Germans and a US researcher

Together with a US researcher, the two scientists will be honored for their discovery of optogenetics. It makes visible how nerve cells work and revolutionized research.

Stockholm. This year's Nobel Prize for Medicine goes to the two Germans Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel as well as the US researcher Karl Deisseroth. The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm announced that their discoveries in the field of optogenetics will be honored.

The award is worth twelve million Swedish crowns (the equivalent of around $1.2 million), which the three scientists share. Hegemann is a professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Nagel is a professor in Würzburg and Deisseroth teaches at the American Stanford University.

Hegemann and Nagel discovered so-called channelrhodopsins, a type of protein in single-celled algae. Deisseroth harnessed her discovery and developed light-dependent control of these proteins, creating groundbreaking possibilities for neuroscience.

The three researchers laid the foundation for the ability to control nerve cells using light pulses. Optogenetics can now be used to identify how memory processes work and how memories, feelings and behavior are processed in the brain.

More soon.