Nobel medicine prize goes to three scientists for work on brain activity

The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to three scientists whose research into how individual nerve cells can be switched on and off has transformed the study of brain activity.

Karl Deisseroth, 54, Peter Hegemann, 71, and Georg Nagel, 73, were recognised for their work on light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, a technique that allows scientists to use light to control the activity of nerve cells.

The Nobel Assembly said their discoveries have enabled researchers to investigate the brain in ways that were previously difficult or impossible.

The Nobel committee, in a post on X, said the method "is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain's mysteries."

Deisseroth is based at Stanford University in California, while Hegemann works at Humboldt University in Berlin and Nagel is at the University of Wurzburg in Germany.

Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the Nobel medicine committee, said he managed to reach all three laureates by telephone on Monday.

The prize was announced at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, marking the start of Nobel week.

The laureates will share prize money of 12 million Swedish kronor, or about USD 1.2 million.

The medicine prize is the first of this year's Nobel awards. The physics prize will be announced Tuesday, followed by chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday, while the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced on October 12.

Last year's Nobel medicine prize was awarded to three scientists for discoveries concerning the immune system.