STOCKHOLM, Oct 5, (NET) : The Nobel medicine prize was awarded Monday to US psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth and his German colleagues Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their work in the field of optogenetics.
The field helps researchers understand how specific cell types contribute to behaviours like learning, fear, addiction and movement, and may one day lead to treatments for neurological and sensory disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.
“Using optogenetics, researchers have been able to reveal neural circuits governing specific memories, feelings, and behaviours relevant for neurological and psychiatric disorders,” the Nobel Assembly said.
In clinical medicine, researchers are using the method in attempts to restore sight in people with visual impairment.
“Optogenetics has fundamentally altered our understanding of the brain. Every day brings new discoveries, helping to solve one of humanity’s great mysteries: how our incredible brain works,” the Nobel Assembly said.
Last year, the medicine prize went to Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell of the United States and Japan’s Shimon Sakaguchi for research into how the immune system is kept in check by identifiying its “security guards”.This year’s laureates will receive their prize — a diploma, a gold medal and a $1.2-million cheque — from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of the prize’s creator, scientist Alfred Nobel.
– Physics prize Tuesday –
The Nobel prize for physics will be announced on Tuesday. Physicists Sir John Pendry of Britain and David Smith of the US, who pioneered the concept of the “invisibility cloak”, have been seen as possible winners for years.
They showed that engineered metamaterials could bend electromagnetic waves around an object, concealing it from view. The chemistry prize will follow on Wednesday and the literature prize on Thursday.
Some pundits have suggested that for literature, the Swedish Academy could follow up last year’s award to Hungary’s Laszlo Krasznahorkai with a woman writer, possibly from Central or Latin America.
Argentine author Samanta Schweblin, 48, could be one such pick, literary critic Lina Kalmteg told AFP.
Others often mentioned in Nobel speculation include Antiguan-American author Jamaica Kincaid, Chinese writer Can Xue, Australia’s Gerald Murnane and Alexis Wright, Thomas Pynchon of the US and Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza.
– All eyes on peace –
Perhaps the most keenly anticipated award is that due on Friday, the peace prize — the only Nobel to be awarded in Oslo.
This year, some experts have suggested the jury could choose a laureate who enjoys broad consensus, after last year’s winner, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, stirred controversy.
US President Donald Trump lobbied intensively last year to get the prize — Machado ended up giving him her Nobel medal — and the committee is aware he will be watching closely again.
