Stockholm (dpa, d.de) – Together with a US researcher, two scientists working in Germany are to receive this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The prize is being awarded to Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University in Berlin, Georg Nagel of the University of Würzburg and Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University in the USA. The Nobel Committee is recognising the three researchers for their discoveries relating to light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.
Through their research on green algae, Hegemann and Nagel have laid important foundations for optogenetics. They have identified and characterised channelrhodopsins as light-gated ion channels and showed that they could be introduced into other cells. This allows cells to respond selectively to light. This means that the two scientists are among the pioneers of a method now used in biological and medical research around the world.
Using light to control nerve cells
Deisseroth applied these findings to neuroscience. He showed how channelrhodopsins can be used to selectively activate nerve cells using light. In optogenetics, which developed from this work, selected cells are modified to become light-sensitive and can then be controlled by light signals.
Optogenetics has opened up new possibilities, particularly in neuroscience. It enables researchers to investigate which nerve cells and neural networks perform particular functions and how they communicate with one another. The method thus helps researchers better understand how the brain works and investigate the mechanisms underlying neurological and psychiatric disorders.
As early as the beginning of the 2000s, Nagel and Hegemann showed that light-sensitive proteins from algae could be used to control other cells using light signals. Both have already received numerous international awards for their pioneering work.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The three scientists will share the prize.
Discussion about this post