Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel are shown on the screen as they are awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, as announced during a press conference at the Nobel Forum at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 5, 2026. (Pontus Lundahl/TT News Agency via AP) (Pontus Lundahl/TT News Agency via AP)

Nobel medicine prize goes to 3 scientists for research into brain activity

· Yahoo News
FILE - U.S. scientist Karl Deisseroth, professor of Departments of Bioengineering and Psychiatry at Stanford University, shows his trophy for "Life Sciences" field during the Japan Prize presentation ceremony Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File) (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
FILE - A close-up view of a Nobel Prize medal at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., Dec. 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
FILE - U.S. scientist Karl Deisseroth, professor of Departments of Bioengineering and Psychiatry at Stanford University, shows his trophy for "Life Sciences" field during the Japan Prize presentation ceremony Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File) (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Portraits of Peter Hegemann, top right, and Georg Nagel are shown on the screen as they and Karl Deisseroth are awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, as announced during a press conference at the Nobel Forum at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 5, 2026. (Pontus Lundahl/TT News Agency via AP) (Pontus Lundahl/TT News Agency via AP)

Nobel Medicine

1 of 6
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel are shown on the screen as they are awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, as announced during a press conference at the Nobel Forum at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 5, 2026. (Pontus Lundahl/TT News Agency via AP) (Pontus Lundahl/TT News Agency via AP)

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to three scientists working on the mechanisms the brain uses to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells.

Karl Deisseroth, 54, Peter Hegemann, 71, and Georg Nagel, 73, have carried out research into light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.

The Nobel Assembly lauded their work, writing on X that the method "is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain's mysteries."

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

The assembly said Deisseroth is based at Stanford University in California, while Hegemann is at Humboldt University in Berlin and Nagel at the University of Würzburg, also in Germany.

Thomas Perlmann, the secretary of the medicine committee, said he was able to reach all three winners by phone Monday. The Associated Press' efforts to reach the winners were not immediately successful.

Optogenetics opened what the Nobel assembly called a new era in neuroscience, the discovery of a light-controlled switch to turn on and off nerve cells and circuits in the brain to better learn how it works — to start unraveling the pathways that lead to behavior and disease.

It started when Hegemann explored how a single-celled type of green algae can swim toward light. He and Nagel discovered a particular protein that, when illuminated by blue light, opens a channel to create an electrical impulse. Putting that protein into other cells makes them light-sensitive.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Deisseroth then worked with the gene that controls that protein to create a light-controlled switch for nerve cells in the brains of living mice.

Medicine prize kicks off Nobels week

The prize was announced at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, kicking off Nobels week.

The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million).

Last year, the prize went to three scientists researching the immune system.

Monday's medicine prize is followed by the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday.

After Friday's peace prize is awarded, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced on Oct. 12.

Advertisement
Advertisement

The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, small group of laureates or organization.

___

Dazio reported from Berlin and Neergaard reported from Washington. Adithi Ramakrishnan in New York contributed to this report.

___

AP Nobel Prizes: https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes