Optogenetics uses channelrhodopsin, a light-sensitive ion channel protein discovered in green algae, which can be genetically delivered into specific neurons so that shining light on them opens or closes the channel and turns those cells on or off. Researchers can target the protein to particular neuron types using modified viruses carrying the channelrhodopsin gene plus a marker, letting them link specific circuits to behavior in living animals. The hosts discuss this as a 2026 Medicine Nobel contender, naming Peter Hegemann for discovering and characterizing the protein in algae, and Karl Deisseroth and Edward Boyden for demonstrating optical control of mammalian neurons in 2005, with Gero Miesenbock also mentioned as a possible pick.
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Hegemann is described as professor of experimental biophysics at Humboldt University in Berlin, who studied how algae respond to light.
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Deisseroth and Boyden's 2005 work at Stanford is credited with adapting the algal protein for mammalian neurons, sparking two decades of widespread lab use.
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The hosts note a selection dilemma: the Nobel Prize caps winners at three, but four researchers (Hegemann, Deisseroth, Boyden, Miesenbock) have strong claims, and giving it to Miesenbock would likely exclude Boyden since he was a PhD student at the time.
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The hosts mention they covered channelrhodopsin in more depth in a prior year's preview episode.
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7:42>> is a classic move for the uh Nobel committee. >> Yep. All right. So the second prediction that I have is something that I've recycled from last year's predictions. This is optogenetics. Um optogenetics is an incredible technology that is now used not only in neuroscience but all over cellular biotechnology assays. The idea is that there's a specific protein that has been discovered called channel redopsin. It's a in it's a channel protein meaning that it's um it lets ions through. It sits on the membrane between the outside and the inside of the cell. And
8:24it's rodopsin because that reminds you of the rods and cones, the rods in your eyes. It is light sensitive. This is a protein that was originally identified in green algae and it forms an ion channel on the membrane. The idea is you can shine light on it of a particular frequency. The protein is going to absorb that photon and then use the energy of that photon to change its shape and open up or close depending on what this specific protein is trying to do. Crucially, this gives us the ability to not only read but also write into the neurons, right? We can now actively affect what the neurons are doing. This
9:05is not the first time that we've been able to write stuff obviously like Neurolink for example is read and write as well and that uses electrodes that are going right next to the neurons and if you send out a voltage pulse then that's going to affect the molecular environment. Right here on the other hand you can you can very specifically tag specific types of neurons. So you can like have a you can have a virus for example that is modified obviously and this virus has the DNA for channel redopsin and it's also got a marker that lets it only infect certain types of neurons and not others. So it's going to infect those neurons, put in this DNA for channel redopsin. The cell is going
9:46to make channel redopsin and express it on its outside and then I can shine light on it and turn on and off only those specific types of cells, whether it be parameal neurons or like inhibitory neurons, whatever I want, I can sort of engineer and make happen within a living breathing animal. Right? I I remember when we talked about this the first time and it was such a mind-blowing concept again the ways in which we are so clever in how we try to have impacts on our biology uh and using the existing mechanics >> of you know how biology works generally and just manipulating it for an outcome
10:27that we want that's controllable and uh the again not to continue to >> pump up last year's coverage We had a deeper dive on channel adoption at the time. Yeah. And so if you're curious to learn more about it, uh, check our preview episode from last year. Yeah. I mean, it's absolutely incredible because it's been used it's used in every single university. There is a research lab actually usually several that use optogenetics. Um, and the key idea is we when we can manipulate circuits like this, we can then turn them on and off. we can couple them to behavior experiments and then we can see what specific circuits are doing right in terms of all the way from the genetics
11:09all the way down to behavior because we have this control knob. So it's been incredible for the bio research community at large. So there are a few people that are involved here. First one I would think is Peter Hegman. >> Um he is the professor of experimental biohysics at Humbult University at Berlin. He studied the chemistry of this protein itself and he his research was basically on how algae responded to light. He's the guy who discovered the protein in the first place. After that Carl Daiseroth and Edward Bdon in 2005 and all of their collaborators at Stanford they demonstrated precise optical control of mamalian neurons
11:50using channel redopsin. So you know having it in algae is one thing but modifying it a certain way making it compatible with mamalian neurons that was something else and that is what has led to the boom for over the past 20 years of using this as an experiment. Um it's it's been absolutely massive. So I think I think this has contention which is why I'm recycling it from last year. >> Right. We're taking a second bite at the apple here. >> Yeah. Yeah. I really think this could happen. Um there's one other guy um Garham Misenbach. He's also predicted if they give it to Misenbach, they're probably not going to give it to Bdon because Bdon was a PhD
12:31student at the time. >> Um but Ed at at Ed Bdon at MIT now has really taken this to the next level. So again, this is going to be one of those where it's interesting if they give it to optogenetics, which three are they going to choose? I this is so I think you know like many things uh it's a little bit subjective >> uh there is obviously backing to it. >> Yeah. >> But when you have the limitation of saying only three >> Yeah. >> Someone's got to sit on the bench. Yeah. Not everyone can be a starting player. >> Exactly. Yeah. >> Um and that's tough. And a lot and and all four of these guys are quite young. >> Yeah. And so like so you can't really
13:11wait, you know. >> Right. Uh can't wait for them to