{
  "id": 13875463,
  "title": "Optogenetics wins Nobel: One neuroscience breakthrough in line of tech innovations helping scientists map, control brain",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/12/optogenetics-wins-nobel-one-neuroscience-breakthrough-in-line-of-tech",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-12T04:19:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Hindustan Times - World News",
    "slug": "hindustan-times-world-news",
    "url": "https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/optogenetics-wins-nobel-one-neuroscience-breakthrough-in-line-of-tech-innovations-helping-scientists-map-control-brain-101791778741240.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "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.\n\nAccording 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.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Daily Maverick",
        "title": "THE CONVERSATION: How pond algae led to a Nobel and new ways to study the brain",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/11/the-conversation-how-pond-algae-led-to-a-nobel-and-new-ways-to-study",
        "published": "2026-10-11T06:41:08.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}