美德三位科学家荣获2026年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖US and German Trio Wins 2026 Nobel Medicine Prize for Optogenetics

瑞典卡罗琳斯卡学院诺贝尔大会秘书长托马斯·佩尔曼（Thomas Perlmann）在斯德哥尔摩宣布了这一评选结果。三位获奖者分别在美德顶尖学府任教：卡尔·戴瑟罗斯是美国斯坦福大学生物工程学以及精神病学与行为科学教授；彼得·赫格曼为德国柏林洪堡大学神经科学教授，被公认为光生物学领域的领军学者；格奥尔格·纳格尔则是德国维尔茨堡大学的生物物理学家兼神经生理学教授。他们将平分1200万瑞典克朗的奖金。

Thomas Perlmann, secretary general of the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, announced the prize in Stockholm, honoring three researchers based at leading academic institutions in the United States and Germany. Karl Deisseroth serves as a professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University. Peter Hegemann is a professor of neuroscience at Humboldt University of Berlin and a recognized leader in photobiology. Georg Nagel is a biophysicist and professor of neurophysiology at the University of Würzburg. The trio will share the 12 million Swedish kronor prize sum equally.

佩尔曼在通报消息时表示，三位科学家在公开发布前获悉评选结果时均感到十分惊喜。当时身处美国的戴瑟罗斯接到电话时正在熟睡中，醒来后表达了欣喜之情。诺贝尔大会指出，三位学者互称挚友，并一致表示能与彼此共同分享这一荣誉感到格外美妙。

Perlmann noted that all three laureates were surprised and delighted when informed of the recognition shortly before the public announcement. Deisseroth was asleep when the early morning call came through and woke up to receive the news. According to the Nobel Assembly, all three scientists described each other as friends and expressed that it was an honor and a wonderful experience to share the award together.

这项技术的科学探索始于1990年代初。彼得·赫格曼当时致力于研究单细胞绿藻衣藻（Chlamydomonas）如何在半毫秒内对光线作出反应并朝光源游动。他提出假设，认为衣藻体内存在一种兼具感光与离子通道功能的单一蛋白质。格奥尔格·纳格尔随后将衣藻基因注入青蛙卵中验证该假设，成功发现了光敏离子通道蛋白——通道视紫红质-2（channelrhodopsin-2），该蛋白在蓝光照射下会打开通道并产生电冲动。

The scientific journey leading to optogenetics began in the early 1990s when Peter Hegemann investigated how the single-celled green alga Chlamydomonas reacts to light within half a millisecond to swim toward illumination. Hegemann hypothesized that a single protein served the dual role of capturing light and functioning as an ion channel. Georg Nagel tested this hypothesis by injecting Chlamydomonas genes into frog eggs, discovering channelrhodopsin-2, a light-sensitive ion channel protein that opens when exposed to blue light to generate an electrical impulse.

2003年，赫格曼与纳格尔发表研究成果，证实将该光敏蛋白引入人类与仓鼠细胞后，同样能够通过光照产生电信号。2005年，卡尔·戴瑟罗斯在斯坦福大学成功将该技术应用于活体大鼠神经细胞，利用控制该蛋白的基因构建出可被光控的神经元开关。这一融合光学与遗传学控制神经活动的方法在2006年被正式命名为“光遗传学”。

In 2003, Hegemann and Nagel published findings demonstrating that introducing channelrhodopsin into human and hamster cells allowed those cells to produce electrical impulses in response to light. Two years later, in 2005, Karl Deisseroth at Stanford University successfully applied the technique to rat nerve cells, utilizing the gene governing the algal protein to build light-controlled switches in neurons. The revolutionary methodology was formally named optogenetics in 2006.

诺贝尔委员会与科学界评价指出，光遗传学的创立为神经科学开创了全新时代。诺贝尔生理学或医学奖委员会成员安娜·韦德尔（Anna Wedell）表示，该技术就像一个“光敏开关”，使研究人员能够精确绘制大脑中各类细胞对应的具体功能。在此之前，人类对于调节情绪、复杂行为及身体机能的深层运作机制缺乏直接解析手段，而光遗传学使精准操纵活体神经元成为现实。

The Nobel Committee and scientific analysts described optogenetics as laying the foundation for a new era in neuroscience. Anna Wedell, a member of the Nobel Prize committee, explained that the technology acts as a light-sensitive switch, enabling researchers to map which cells are responsible for specific functions across the brain. Before the advent of this method, the inner biological workings governing feelings, behaviors, and physical functions remained largely mysterious to scientists, whereas optogenetics offers a direct mechanism to manipulate living neurons with millisecond precision.

诺贝尔生理学或医学奖委员会主席佩尔·斯文宁松（Per Svenningsson）指出，光遗传学为绘制大脑图谱提供了过去难以想象的可能。科睿唯安科学信息研究所研究分析主管大卫·彭德尔伯里（David Pendlebury）也表示，这项技术改变了科学家理解大脑与神经系统的方式，研究人员能够借助光线精确控制并研究神经元活动。

Per Svenningsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, noted that optogenetics provides opportunities for mapping the brain in a way that researchers could once only dream of. David Pendlebury, head of research analysis at Clarivate's Institute for Scientific Information, stated that the methodology fundamentally changed how scientists understand the brain and nervous system by allowing researchers to use light to precisely control and study neural activity.

光遗传学的应用正在由基础神经科学向临床医学及病理机制研究拓展。根据诺贝尔奖委员会成员兼神经科学教授阿卜杜勒·埃尔·马尼拉（Abdel El Manira）的评述，该技术不仅能用于了解健康大脑，还揭示了脑回路如何发生功能失常。目前，全球实验室正广泛利用动物模型，深入探究精神分裂症、帕金森病、阿尔茨海默病、癫痫、抑郁症和成瘾等疾病的致病机制，这些疾病在全球范围内影响数以百万计的患者，且现有治疗手段较为有限。

The application of optogenetics is expanding beyond fundamental neuroscience into pathological investigation and translational medicine. Abdel El Manira, a Nobel committee member and professor of neuroscience, stated that the influence of optogenetics extends far beyond understanding the healthy brain by revealing how neural circuits are disrupted in conditions such as blindness, depression, addiction, and dementia. Researchers worldwide are currently deploying animal disease models to investigate schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, and addiction, conditions that affect millions of people globally and continue to have limited clinical treatment options.

在临床转化探索方面，研究人员正通过将光敏蛋白植入视网膜，开展旨在为视网膜色素变性致盲患者恢复视力的临床试验。此外，医学科研人员也在评估将光遗传学应用于改良人工耳蜗的可行性，期望通过光控方式实现比现有电刺激设备更加精准的听神经刺激，为神经与感官系统疾病的未来治疗探索新路径。

In direct clinical trials, medical researchers are inserting light-sensitive proteins into the retina in efforts to restore sight to individuals blinded by retinitis pigmentosa. Scientists also anticipate that optogenetic methods could improve auditory cochlear implants by enabling substantially more precise optical stimulation of the auditory nerve compared to conventional electrical stimulation devices, offering prospective pathways for addressing both sensory impairments and complex neurological disorders.