Nobel de Medicina premia pesquisa sobre funcionamento do cérebro

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to three researchers for their groundbreaking work in understanding brain function through a technique called optogenetics. Optogenetics uses light, genetics, and bioengineering to study how cells in the brain communicate with each other. The Nobel Committee announced that the technique is being used worldwide to reveal how brain cells communicate and has the potential to shed light on diseases like depression, autism, and schizophrenia.

The three laureates are Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel. Deisseroth, a 54-year-old researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University, uses optogenetics to study the brain and has struggled to find clear explanations for his patients' problems. Hegemann, a 71-year-old researcher at the Humboldt University in Berlin, and Nagel, a 73-year-old researcher at the University of Würzburg, discovered a protein that becomes sensitive to blue light, allowing them to create a "map of the mine" of how brain cells communicate.

This discovery, published in 2003, revolutionized the field of neuroscience by moving researchers from using static maps of brain activity to functional diagrams of neural connections. The technique has also led to the development of other methods for exploring neural complexity. Scientists have compared optogenetics' impact to the transition from physical maps to GPS navigation.

The technique is currently being tested for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disease that causes blindness, and has shown promise in restoring some vision to patients using specialized glasses.