Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for their discoveries in neuroscience. The three scientists researched light-gated ion channels, a type of proteins, to establish the field of optogenetics, a pioneering technique that uses tiny lights to activate discrete groups of neurons in the brain, said Abdel El Manira, a member of the Nobel Committee that awarded the prize. The discovery has illuminated how specific circuits function in the brain and provides clues for the treatment of conditions such as blindness, depression, addiction and dementia. Dr. Karl Deisseroth is a professor of bioengineering and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.
He and a team developed tiny optical fibers that activated neurons in the brain and elicited specific behaviors for the first time. Dr. Peter Hegemann is a professor of experimental biophysics at Humboldt University in Berlin. He discovered a protein that converts light into an electrical signal. Dr. Georg Nagel is a professor of plant physiology at the University of Wurzburg in Germany. Alongside Dr. Hegemann, he discovered that the proteins contained a light-gated ion channel, which generates an electrical signal when exposed to light.
Professor El Manira described it as "the switch" that allows neuroscientists to activate the protein. The discovery has enabled neuroscientists to link nerve cells in the brain to specific behaviors, said Anna Wedell a professor of clinical genetics at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and an adjunct member of the Nobel awarding committee. "Before, we had an anatomical map of the brain," Professor Wedell said. "Now we can generate functional maps, and we can also understand how different cells speak to each other across the brain." She described the discovery as heralding "a completely new dimension of understanding of the function of the brain.".
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing