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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Nicola Davis Science correspondent

Nobel prize in medicine 2026 awarded for research into mysteries of brain

A man speaks at a podium in front of a screen showing headshots of the three recipients
The three recipients, (from left) Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel are shown on screen during the Nobel prize announcement. Photograph: Pontus Lundahl/EPA

The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine 2026 has been awarded to three scientists for their work investigating the mysteries of the brain.

Karl Deisseroth of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University, Peter Hegemann of the Humboldt University of Berlin and Georg Nagel of the University of Würzburg have been awarded the prize “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”.

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