PCT Newsletter

October 2026 | No. 10/2026

Special feature: Eyes on the Prize

Nobel-winning discovery has opened up a new area of innovation and patenting

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026, which was announced on 5 October, highlights once again how scientific curiosity can pave the way for real-world innovation.

Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel were awarded equal shares of the Prize for their path-breaking development of optogenetics, a new technique that uses light to control nerve cells in living systems – including the human brain. 

Optogenetics allows researchers to map neural circuits in detail, enhancing understanding and potentially treatment of a huge range of disorders. These wide-ranging practical applications grew out of basic scientific research. 

Professor Hegemann became intrigued by the long-standing mystery of how a single-celled alga called Chlamydomonas can rapidly detect and swim towards light. He and Professor Nagel isolated a light-sensitive protein in the alga and discovered that it could be introduced genetically into the cells of other living organisms so that those cells would produce an electrical signal when exposed to light. 

Professor Deisseroth built on that work, including through collaborations with Hegemann and Nagel, to develop the method now called optogenetics, in which light is used to switch nerve cells off and on, allowing researchers to identify the function of specific neural circuits. 

Their shared discoveries have opened the way to an abundance of innovation and patent activity. As of mid-October 2026, a search for “optogenetics” in the PATENTSCOPE database returns more than 7,000 results, including more than 2,000 international applications through the PCT. Two of the Nobel laureates themselves have sought patent protection for numerous inventions: Deisseroth is mentioned as an inventor on 142 applications in various national jurisdictions, mainly the United States, and Hegemann features among the co-inventors in 15 of them. Inventors from around the world are now investigating diverse possible applications of optogenetics, from treating neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease to healing wounds, relieving sciatic neuralgia and restoring vision in patients with certain retinal diseases. 

For more information about the Prize-winning discoveries, visit the Nobel Prize website.

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