Apparently, a doubted idea can light up a whole field.
Karl Deisseroth helped develop optogenetics, a way to use light to study cells in the brain. People had doubted the idea. This week, he shared a Nobel Prize for the work. His children’s sandwiches still needed making.
On October 5, 2026, Karl Deisseroth learned that he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel. Deisseroth is a Stanford researcher and psychiatrist, a doctor who treats mental health conditions. Then he asked for a pause in the congratulations: his children needed school lunches. Apparently, Stockholm does not pack sandwiches.
Their work helped develop optogenetics, a way to use light to study cells. Researchers make certain cells produce proteins that react to light. They then use light to change what those cells do. This lets scientists test the jobs of particular nerve cells, rather than only watch them working.
Different people helped make it happen. Hegemann studied how algae respond to light. Nagel helped explain how proteins in those algae open channels in cells when light hits them. In 2005, Deisseroth and his team showed they could use this approach to control nerve-cell activity. A big discovery can have several beginnings—and plenty of people doing the work.
Nobody knew for sure that it would work. At a May 2026 Milken Institute panel, former NIH director Elias Zerhouni looked back on the early funding decisions. NIH stands for the US National Institutes of Health. He recalled Deisseroth being turned down three times. The group deciding whether to fund the research was split over whether the idea could work. This is one person’s later account of the hurdles Deisseroth faced.
The method changed how scientists study groups of connected nerve cells in the brain. It does not mean every condition that affects the brain and nerves now has a treatment. It also does not mean a beam of light can easily control someone’s thoughts. The remarkable part is already real without adding a miracle.
Our take: trying again after rejection can take courage when you keep testing, listening and improving the idea. Deisseroth did that while also handling a familiar morning task. Apparently, a big discovery and a lunchbox can share a calendar.
Added October 11, 2026. The date above is the day the Nobel Prize was announced. The research began years earlier. The gallery photos are from 2022 and 2025, not the award announcement.
Read the main source: Associated Press — October 5, 2026, via iNFOnews ↗
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