India, Oct. 5 -- The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, the Nobel Prize committee announced on Monday.

The three scientists were recognised for pioneering work that enabled researchers to control the activity of specific cells using light. Their discoveries have transformed neuroscience and opened new avenues for studying how the brain and nervous system function.

"Optogenetics makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain. This method is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain's mysteries", the the Nobel Asse...