The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded Monday to three scientists for research into light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, revealing how the brain switches individual nerve cell activity on or off.
The laureates are Karl Deisseroth, 54, of California's Stanford University; Peter Hegemann, 71, of Humboldt University in Berlin; and Georg Nagel, 73, of Germany's University of Würzburg.
Announced at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm to kick off Nobel week, the award carries 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million) whether for an individual, small group of laureates, or organization. Medicine committee secretary Thomas Perlmann reached all three winners by phone. On X, the committee lauded their method as "now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain's mysteries".
