The Nobel Prize-awarding body announced Monday that scientists Karl Diesroth, Peter Hagmann and Georg Nagel have won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine "for their discoveries related to light-controlled ion channels and optogenetics."

The Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Medical Institute in Sweden chose the American Carl Deisert (54 years old), the German Peter Hagmann (71) and the German Georg Nagel (73 years old) to receive the prize, which is worth 12 million Swedish kroner (about 1.2 million dollars), which is divided equally among the winners.

The donor said that optogenetics "makes it possible to activate or deactivate the activity of individual neurons within the living brain", adding that "this method is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the secrets of the brain".

The Nobel Prize in Medicine is usually the first Nobel Prize announced each year, followed in the coming days by the Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace and Economics prizes.