Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to three scientists for their work ‘concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics’

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By Issy Ronald, CNN

(CNN) — The 2026 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to three scientists – Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel – for their work developing a technique to decode how the brain shapes “memories, feelings and behaviors.”

Hegemann and Nagel discovered a protein, known as channelrhodopsin, before Deisseroth “transformed the protein into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells,” the Nobel Committee said in a statement. That work has “laid the foundation for a new era in neuroscience,” the committee added.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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