DEISSEROTH, HEGEMANN AND NAGEL WIN NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE

STOCKHOLM, OCTOBER 5 /SRNA/ - This year's Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for discoveries concerning light-controlled ion channels and optogenetics, the Nobel Committee announced.

"Understanding how the brain forms memories, feelings and behaviour has long been a dream of researchers," the statement said, adding that optogenetics "makes it possible to switch the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain on or off".

The committee noted that the method "is now used in laboratories around the world to uncover the mysteries of the brain".

Deisseroth is an American scientist affiliated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University.

Hegemann is a German scientist working at Humboldt University of Berlin, while his compatriot Nagel works at the University of Würzburg.

The three scientists will share equally the monetary portion of the prize, worth approximately EUR one million.