Karl Deisseroth, winner of Nobel Prize in Medicine, explains the future of optogenetics discovery

WBUR

Published October 5, 2026 at 12:07 PM EDT

Karl Deisseroth, one of the three recipients of the 2026 Nobel Prize in medicine, answers questions at home on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Stanford, Calif. (Noah Berger/AP)

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded on Monday to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their work in optogenetics, a field of neuroscience that looks at the activity of individual neurons to link them to specific behaviors.

Here & Now host Robin Young speaks with Deisseroth, one of the three Nobel winners and professor of bioengineering and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, about his discoveries and what this could mean for the future of neuroscience.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.