Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded to Scientists for Brain Activity Research

Three scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their groundbreaking research into the mechanisms the brain uses to switch the activity of individual nerve cells on or off.

Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel were lauded for their work on light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, a method that "is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain's mysteries".

Professor Deisseroth, 54, is based at Stanford University in California, while Professor Hegemann, 71, is at Humboldt University in Berlin and Professor Nagel, 73, is at the University of Würzburg in Germany.

The Nobel Assembly said optogenetics opened a new era in neuroscience, unravelling the pathways that lead to behaviour and disease.

The research started with Dr Hegemann exploring how a single-celled type of green algae can swim toward light. "He and Dr Nagel discovered a particular protein that, when illuminated by blue light, opens a channel to create an electrical impulse. Putting that protein into other cells makes them light-sensitive," the Assembly said.

Dr Deisseroth then worked with the gene that controls that protein to create a light-controlled switch for nerve cells in the brains of living mice.

The prize was announced at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, on Monday, kicking off Nobels week. The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor ($1.718 million).

The Nobel Prize in Medicine has kicked off Nobel week, with the physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics prizes to come.