Nobel laureate Karl Deisseroth says light-based brain-computer interfaces will take a little time to build
Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute shares the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, announced on 5 October, with Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University of Berlin and Georg Nagel of the University of Würzburg for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, the method of making chosen nerve cells switch on or off in response to light. Asked what the work means for neurotechnology devices, Deisseroth said brain-computer interfaces mostly run on electricity, recording activity and in some cases stimulating it, and that light could in principle do the same job but probably will take a little time to build. Optogenetics is closer to patients in two other forms. The FDA has accepted Nanoscope Therapeutics' application for MOGENRY, a one-time optogenetic eye injection for adults with retinitis pigmentosa and severe vision loss, with a decision expected in the first half of 2027. MapLight Therapeutics, which Deisseroth co-founded in 2018, plans a Phase 3 trial of a schizophrenia drug whose development drew on optogenetic laboratory work.