Optogenetics wins Nobel: One neuroscience breakthrough in line of tech innovations helping scientists map, control brain

Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel have been awarded the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for their research into optogenetics and light-gated ion channels. The prize recognizes their work in revealing potential new methods for controlling nerve cells.

According to the Daily Maverick, the research began with investigations into how the single-celled alga Chlamydomonas senses light. Hegemann, of Humboldt University of Berlin, and Nagel, of the University of Würzburg, discovered that the organism utilizes a mechanism involving a protein called channelrhodopsin. This protein is built into the outer membrane of the algal cell and contains a small molecule known as retina.

Brief written by urgent.news from Hindustan Times - World News, Daily Maverick — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.