Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded to Berlin Professor

Peter Hegemann from Humboldt University found the key in an alga that gives hope to patients with neurological diseases. A Berlin Professor has won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his research, which hopes to help patients with neurological diseases.

IMAGO / Xinhua

This year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to biophysicist Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University. Two other scientists were also honoured alongside him: Georg Nagel from Würzburg and Karl Deisseroth from the USA. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm announced the award on Monday.

The three men are being recognised “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”. Hegemann and Nagel discovered channelrhodopsins, light-sensitive proteins from a green alga. Deisseroth developed a light-controlled switch by introducing channelrhodopsins into brain nerve cells using a virus.

This led to the development of optogenetics, a technique that allows individual nerve cells to be selectively switched on and off using light pulses. The method could offer new perspectives for patients suffering from neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s or epilepsy. The technology helps researchers to better understand such diseases and to develop new therapeutic approaches, and promises to change neuroscience as we know it.

This year’s Nobel Prize is endowed with 12 million Swedish kronor, equivalent to approximately 1.06 million euros. It will be divided equally among the three laureates. The award ceremony traditionally takes place on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s.