The Nobel Prize in Medicine goes to Karl Deisseroth, winner of the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in 2016
Karl Deisseroth, winner of the 8th BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology and Biomedicine, has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine today, alongside Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel. The jury at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm awarded the prize for laying “the foundations of a new era in neuroscience” through optogenetics.
5 October, 2026
The Nobel committee explains that optogenetics is “a method that allows us to see how nerve cells shape memories, emotions, and behaviors in the living brain.”
“Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel discovered an extraordinary protein, channelrhodopsin, in a single-celled alga. Karl Deisseroth transformed that protein into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells,” the Nobel statement notes.
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine previously recognized Deisseroth in its 8th edition (2016), alongside colleagues Edward Boyden and Gero Miesenböck, for their contributions to the development of optogenetics, which enables the study of brain functions with unprecedented precision. Today, thousands of groups worldwide use optogenetics to investigate functions such as sleep, appetite, decision-making, time perception, and memory formation, as well as to understand the mechanisms behind diseases like epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, depression, and even certain forms of blindness.
The unique feature of optogenetics is that it allows for the control of specific neurons simply by using light of the appropriate wavelength. Previously, the most common techniques for studying the living brain could modify the activity of hundreds or thousands of neurons but lacked precision. Optogenetics makes it possible to target only those neurons into which light-sensitive proteins have been introduced, allowing researchers to tailor the method to the specific experiment.
From the lab to the clinic: the value of basic research
Dr. Deisseroth (Boston, USA, 1971)—a professor at Stanford University who is both a neuroscientist and a practicing psychiatrist—noted upon receiving the Frontiers of Knowledge Award that “the primary application of optogenetics is basic research: understanding how the brain works.” That knowledge will make “all clinical advances” possible, said the scientist recognized today with the Nobel Prize.
Deisseroth believes that, thanks to optogenetics, a better understanding of the neuronal circuits involved in diseases will enable the development of drugs that are far more specific than current ones—compounds that act directly and specifically on those circuits. In his view, this represents a level of precision in treating mental or neurological disorders that is “far superior to what exists today.”
As he expressed in the speech delivered upon receiving the Frontiers of Knowledge Award, “the potential of optogenetics —both to achieve fundamental insights into the mysteries of the brain as well as to develop new treatments for mental disorders such as schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, autism, and epilepsy— stands as a testament to the value of basic research.”
35 Frontiers awardees have gone on to win the Nobel Prize
The award of the Nobel in Medicine to Karl Deisseroth makes a total of 35 Frontiers of Knowledge laureates that have later won the Nobel Prize.
Fourteen Frontiers awardees have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics: Lars Peter Hansen (2013), Jean Tirole (2014), Angus Deaton (2015), William Nordhaus (2018), Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo (2019), Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson (2020), David Card (2021), Ben Bernanke (2022), Claudia Goldin (2023), Daron Acemoglu (2024) and Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt (2025).
In the case of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, six Frontiers laureates were subsequently distinguished by the Swedish Academy: Shinya Yamanaka (2011), James P. Allison (2018), David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian (2021) and Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman (2023).
The Nobel Prize in Physics has found its way to seven previous Frontiers awardees: Didier Queloz and Michel G. E. Mayor (2019), Klaus Hasselman and Syukuru Manabe (2021) Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier (2023), and Geoffrey Hinton (2024).
Finally, in the case of the Chemistry Nobel, the Swedish Academy has recognized the work of seven Frontiers awardees: Robert J. Lefkowitz in 2012, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna in 2020, David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper in 2024, and Omar Yaghi in 2025.
