Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026. For their discovery discoveries that opened a new technique called optogenetics.

Peter Hegemann was curious. He wondered how a single-celled alga swims toward light.

In the early 2000s, he and Georg Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin. This algal protein sits on the cell’s surface. Blue light makes the protein open a tiny channel. Charged ions rush in, creating an electrical pulse. Any cell given this protein becomes sensitive to light.

Karl Deisseroth then put the protein’s gene into rat nerve cells. Shining blue light on them triggered a nerve signal. He published this breakthrough in 2005. By 2007, he made the light switch work inside living mouse brains.

Today, this light-control technique is called optogenetics. It allows researchers to trace brain circuits tied to memory, emotion, and behavior. Scientists are even using it to help restore sight to the blind.

2025 Winner’s

Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025. For their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance. The Nobel Prize laureates identified the immune system’s security guards, regulatory T cells, thus laying the foundation for a new field of research.

2024 winner’s

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. For their discovery of a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated. They discovered microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation. Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2023 awarded to Katalin Kariko, and Drew Weissman. For their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against Covid-19.

The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Svante Pääbo. For his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.

The youngest,31 years old, medicine laureate. 1923 laureate Frederick G. Banting

87 years old: the oldest medicine laureate. 1966 laureate Peyton Rous