US-German trio win Nobel Medicine Prize for optogenetics

US psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for their work on optogenetics, a technique that uses light to control and study specific cells, particularly nerve cells.

The technique has helped researchers understand how specific types of cells contribute to behaviours including learning, fear, addiction and movement. It could eventually contribute to treatments for neurological and sensory disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.

“Using optogenetics, researchers have been able to reveal neural circuits governing specific memories, feelings, and behaviours relevant for neurological and psychiatric disorders,” the Nobel Assembly said. Researchers are also using the technique in attempts to restore sight in people with visual impairment.

“Optogenetics has fundamentally altered our understanding of the brain,” the Nobel Assembly said, adding that the method was helping researchers investigate how the brain works. Last year, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to US scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell and Japan’s Shimon Sakaguchi for their research into how the immune system is regulated.

The three laureates will receive a diploma, a gold medal and a cash award of $1.2 million at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Nobel Prize founder Alfred Nobel in 1896.

Physics prize Tuesday

The Nobel Prize in Physics will be announced on Tuesday. British physicist Sir John Pendry and US physicist David Smith, who pioneered the concept of an “invisibility cloak”, have been mentioned as possible winners. They showed that engineered metamaterials could bend electromagnetic waves around an object, potentially concealing it from view. The chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday, followed by the literature prize on Thursday.

For literature, some commentators have speculated that the Swedish Academy could choose a woman writer following last year’s award to Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai. Argentine author Samanta Schweblin, 48, has been mentioned as a possible candidate, along with Antiguan-American author Jamaica Kincaid, Chinese writer Can Xue, Australian writers Gerald Murnane and Alexis Wright, US novelist Thomas Pynchon and Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza.

All eyes on peace prize

The Nobel Peace Prize, to be announced on Friday, is perhaps the most closely watched award and is the only Nobel Prize presented in Oslo. Some experts have suggested that the committee could seek a laureate with broad support after last year’s award to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado drew controversy. US President Donald Trump had lobbied for the prize last year, and the committee has again faced lobbying ahead of this year’s announcement.

“There’s always a lot of lobbying, and ultimately perhaps also attempts to exert pressure on the committee,” Nobel committee secretary Kristian Berg Harpviken told AFP. “We’re very used to that.”

Possible candidates this year include a joint nomination of Save the Children and Ukrainian children’s rights activist Mykola Kuleba, who campaigns for the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia from occupied territories.

Other names include Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, a network of volunteers providing assistance amid war and hunger, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, following a deadly year for journalists in 2025. The economics prize will bring the Nobel season to a close on October 12.