Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to three scientists for breakthrough research

The Nobel Prize in medicine has been awarded to three scientists whose work explains how the brain switches individual nerve cells on and off.

The winners are Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel. Their research focuses on light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, techniques that allow scientists to control and study nerve cells using light. Deisseroth is based in the United States, while Hegemann and Nagel work in Germany.

The Nobel committee praised the breakthrough, saying the method is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain’s mysteries.

Deisseroth is based at Stanford University in California. Hegemann works at Humboldt University in Berlin, while Nagel is at the University of Würzburg.

Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the medicine committee, said he managed to reach all three winners by phone on Monday.

The prize was announced at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute, marking the start of Nobel week.

The winners will share prize money of 12 million Swedish kronor, worth around 1.2 million US dollars.

Last year, the prize went to three scientists researching the immune system.

Monday’s medicine prize is followed by the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday.

After Friday’s peace prize is awarded, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced on Oct. 12.