October is Nobel season, when the scientific community turns its attention to Stockholm and the discoveries that have transformed our understanding of the world. This year, the celebration has a special connection to Harvard’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the historic Biological Laboratories.
Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, is one of three scientists awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries leading to optogenetics, a technique that uses light to control the activity of individual nerve cells in the living brain. Deisseroth, now a professor of bioengineering and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, shares the prize with Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University of Berlin and Georg Nagel of the University of Würzburg. Their work established optogenetics as a powerful tool for determining how specific neural circuits contribute to behavior, emotion, and brain function.
Deisseroth’s scientific path began at Harvard, where he earned his undergraduate degree in Biochemical Sciences—an academic program that gave rise to today’s Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) and Chemical and Physical Biology concentrations (CPB)—and conducted thesis research at Harvard Medical School in the lab of S. Martin Shankland, now at the University of Texas, Austin.
Deisseroth is also scheduled to return to Harvard this coming spring as one of the featured alumni speakers at the concluding celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Biochemical Sciences Tutorial. The March 23–24, 2027 event, “Transforming Biological Discovery: From Tools to New Questions,” will focus on the tools and technologies reshaping modern biology. Deisseroth will join other distinguished alumni, including fellow Nobel laureate Martin Chalfie, PhD, and Marian Carlson, PhD, in celebrating a tutorial program that has helped shape generations of Harvard scientists.
Read more about the Bio Labs and its Nobel legacy in FAS Current.
