The American Psychiatric Association congratulates psychiatrist Karl Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D., a member of the editorial board of The American Journal of Psychiatry, on receiving the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Dr. Deisseroth shares this honor with Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for pioneering discoveries that led to the development of optogenetics.

Monday’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine went to Karl Deisseroth. But its joy and heft were shared by many, including his family, mentors, mentees and proud colleagues scattered across the globe.

Collaborators and colleagues of Karl Deisseroth’s come out to celebrate the Nobel Prize laureate Monday on the Stanford University campus.

Light-activated proteins can be activated or inhibited with pulses of laser light. It was a challenge to make it all work — but it did, and it led to a Nobel Prize.