Physiology or Medicine
“for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics” Did you know? This prize began with pond algae. Georg Nagel and Peter Hegemann found channelrhodopsin, a light-sensitive protein that green algae use to swim towards light. Karl Deisseroth then put it into brain cells so they could be switched on and off with flashes of light. That technique, optogenetics, is now a standard way to study circuits involved in blindness, depression, addiction and dementia.