Three scientists just won the 2026 Nobel Prize in medicine for pioneering optogenetics. Their groundbreaking method allows researchers to turn individual nerve cells on and off, unlocking mysteries of the living brain.

STOCKHOLM — Three scientists won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for discoveries that allow researchers to switch on and off nerve cells in the living brain.

Karl Deisseroth, a 54-year-old American, Peter Hegemann, a 71-year-old German, and Georg Nagel, a 73-year-old German, were selected by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute medical university and receive a prize sum amounting to 12 million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million), which is shared if there are multiple winners.

Optogenetics “makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain,” the prize-givers said.

“This method is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain’s mysteries.”

The physiology or medicine prize traditionally opens the annual Nobel announcements, with awards in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics to follow over the coming days.

The five original Nobel Prizes were created under the terms of Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel‘s will and have been awarded since 1901, with only limited interruptions, chiefly during World War I and World War II.

A sixth award, the economics prize, was established in 1968 by Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank.

The medicine prize…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business