2026诺贝尔生理学或医学奖：用一束光“操控”大脑_in_cells

北京时间10月5日17:30， 2026年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖授予卡尔·戴塞洛斯（美）、彼得·黑格曼（德）和格奥尔格·内格尔（德），以表彰他们在光门控离子通道和光遗传学方面的发现。

The 2026 NobelPrize in Physiologyor Medicine is awardedto Karl Deisseroth, Georg Nageland Peter Hegemann for their discovery of rhodopsinand optogenetics, the ability to control cells using light and genetics.

2026年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖授予卡尔·戴塞洛斯、格奥尔格·纳格尔和彼得·赫格曼，以表彰他们发现视紫红质，并推动光遗传学的发展，使人类能够利用光和遗传学手段操控细胞。

Optogenetics allows scientists to use light to switchcells on and off. Using light-sensing proteinscalled rhodopsins, optogenetics allow precise targeting of cells, such as brain cells, to understand what they do.

光遗传学使科学家能够利用光来激活或抑制细胞。借助一种名为视紫红质的光敏蛋白，这项技术可以精准控制特定细胞，例如脑细胞，从而帮助科学家了解这些细胞的功能。

Optogenetics has revolutionized neuroscienceby opening up the brain's activity to scientists in ways previously impossible. As Deisseroth explained in Scientific American in a2017 article, the brain is of such great complexity, that "neuroscientistslack a deep graspof what the brain is really doing—of how specificactivity patternswithin specific brain cells ultimatelygive rise tothoughts, feelings and memories."

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光遗传学彻底改变了神经科学，使科学家能够以前所未有的方式研究大脑活动。正如戴塞洛斯2017年在《科学美国人》上撰文所言，大脑极其复杂，以至于“神经科学家至今未能真正洞悉大脑在做什么——也不明白特定脑细胞中特定的活动模式，究竟如何最终催生出思想、情感与记忆。”

Optogenetics revealshow specific neuronsand neuralpathways governbehavior, such as eating, sociabilityand aggression. Controlling and monitoringindividual cells has also illuminated neurologicaldiseases, such as Parkinson's and epilepsy.

光遗传学揭示了特定神经元和神经通路如何影响行为，包括进食、社交和攻击等行为。而对单个细胞进行控制和监测，也让科学家对帕金森病、癫痫等神经系统疾病有了更深入的认识。

Deisseroth is a professor at Stanford University; Hegemann is a professor at Humboldt University of Berlin, in Germany; and Nagel is a professor at the University of Würzburg in Germany. The award-winning work was done at Stanford and the Max Planck Institutefor Biochemistry, in Germany.

戴塞洛斯是斯坦福大学教授；赫格曼是德国柏林洪堡大学教授；纳格尔是德国维尔茨堡大学教授。这项获奖研究分别在斯坦福大学和德国马克斯·普朗克生物化学研究所完成。

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, first given in 1901, has been awarded 116 times to232 winnersfor innovationsin medicine and biologicalsciences. Over the years, these have included the discovery of insulin, penicillin, blood groups, the molecularstructureof DNA; understanding biological processes such as how neurons work, how malariaspreads, the role of human papillomaviruses in cervical cancer; as wellas for treatments such as in vitro fertilizationand the first antibioticfor tuberculosis.

诺贝尔生理学或医学奖于1901年首次颁发，至今已颁发116次，共有232位获奖者。这一奖项表彰了医学和生物科学领域的诸多重要发现与突破，包括胰岛素、青霉素、血型以及DNA分子结构的发现；对神经元运作机制、疟疾传播途径、人乳头瘤病毒与宫颈癌之间关系等生物学过程的深入理解；以及体外受精、首个结核病抗生素等疗法的问世。

In recent years, laureateshave wonthe prize for their role in research leading to the developmentofthe mRNA vaccineforCOVID-19, awarded in 2023, the discovery of “microRNA,” or small RNA moleculesthat help decipherour DNA (2024), and peripheralimmune tolerance, or how the immune systemhelps regulate itself, in 2025.