Three scientists win 2026 Nobel Prize for brain-mapping method

UPDATE - follow-up to 2026 Nobel medicine prize: Trio wins for optogenetics work: Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.

Prize Details

Sweden's Karolinska Institute medical university announced the winners on Monday, October 5, 2026, during a press conference at the Nobel Forum in Stockholm, Sweden. The laureates share a prize sum amounting to 12 million Swedish crowns, which equals about 1.2 million dollars.

Scientific Impact

Optogenetics makes it possible to switch on or off the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain. Laboratories around the world now use this method to reveal the mysteries of the brain.

Context

This medicine prize announcement kicks off the annual Nobel announcement week, followed by physics, chemistry, literature, and peace, with the economics prize to follow later. Alfred Nobel created the prizes in his will, and winners receive their awards on December 10, which is his death anniversary. This follows an earlier report, covered earlier on 05 Oct 2026: '2026 Nobel medicine prize: Trio wins for optogenetics work'.