Life / Neuroscience & Psychology

Optogenetics

Genes for light-sensitive proteins let scientists switch chosen neurons on or off with light.

In 2005 Edward Boyden, Karl Deisseroth and colleagues showed that neurons carrying the algal protein channelrhodopsin fire when lit with blue light, with millisecond precision. For the first time specific cell types could be controlled to test cause and effect in behavior. It enabled experiments on memory, fear and movement, and prototypes for restoring vision. Deisseroth shared the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel, who had discovered the light-gated algal channels in 2002-2003.