Trio Awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for Neuroscience Discoveries

Updated Oct. 5, 2026 1:18 pm ET

A trio of neuroscientists were awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their pioneering work on optogenetics, a method of controlling nerve cells with light, which makes it possible to study how the brain shapes memories, feelings and behaviors.Announcing the prize recipients Monday at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, the Nobel committee said the work of Drs. Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel had laid the foundation of a new era in neuroscience.

The work “unlocked new understanding of how the brain works, new possibilities for treating neurological and psychiatric disorders,” said Jonathan Levin, president of Stanford University, where Deisseroth is a neuroscientist and psychiatrist.

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Betsy McKay is a senior writer who covers public health and medicine for The Wall Street Journal. Her stories examine how diseases and public health policies shape and challenge society. She writes about public health institutions, cutting-edge scientific research, and prevention and patient care for heart disease, diabetes, Covid-19, HIV, tuberculosis and other diseases globally.

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She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for coverage of Russia’s financial crisis. She has also won awards for stories on drug-resistant tuberculosis, maternity care in the rural U.S., Covid-19 and other public health issues.

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