Three scientists who made it possible to switch specific nerve cells in a living brain on and off with light share this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Karl Deisseroth of the United States and Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel of Germany. The winners were announced in Stockholm on Monday, 5 October, in the afternoon Bangladesh time.
According to the Nobel committee, Hegemann and Nagel discovered a protein called channelrhodopsin that makes any cell it is introduced into sensitive to light. Deisseroth put the channelrhodopsin gene into nerve cells from mice in the laboratory and used blue light to trigger nerve signals, then showed that the light-controlled switch also works in the brains of living mice.
The Nobel announcement says that how the brain controls feelings, behaviour and bodily functions long remained a mystery. Twentieth-century methods produced rough maps of the brain but could not prove what causes what. With optogenetics, researchers can now identify the neural circuits behind particular memories, emotions and behaviours, circuits closely linked to neurological and psychiatric disease.
"Thanks to optogenetics, we can now map the brain in ways we could once only dream of," said Per Svenningsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine.
The method has begun to reach clinical medicine, where researchers are using it in efforts to restore sight to people with poor vision. In the Nobel body's words, optogenetics has completely changed how we understand the brain.
The laureates share a diploma, a gold medal and prize money of about 1.2 million dollars. Last year's prize went to Mary E. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell of the United States and Shimon Sakaguchi of Japan for discoveries on peripheral immune tolerance. The physics prize is announced on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, literature on Thursday and peace on Friday; the economics prize follows on 13 October.
Photo: Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) (Karl Deisseroth)
Source: samakal
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