Earlier this week, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to a trio of researchers for their foundational contributions to the field of optogenetics. Using light as a "switch", optogenetics allows for the control of specific nerves within complex systems; this has been key in advancing our understanding of the brain, but the applications of this methodology extend far beyond that.
The work of Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel, and Karl Deisseroth effectively represents the emergence of the field — from the characterisation of rhodopsin in green algae, the expression of bacteriorhodopsin in a heterologous experimental system, to the now paradigmatic in vivo optogenetic methodologies for neuroscience.
It was in neuroscience that optogenetics proved a long-sought solution. Previously correlative and limited by the interconnected nature of the brain, neuroscience research now began to directly examine causal relationships at the neuronal level. Advances in our understanding of the brain lead to advances in our ability to treat the conditions which impact or are impacted by it, however, there is also hope that optogenetics will lead directly to treatments for those with visual impairments.
But it was many years ago, in 1995, that FEBS Letters published the article from Georg Nagel, Bettina Möckel, Georg Büldt, and Ernst Bamberg entitled "Functional expression of bacteriorhodopsin in oocytes allows direct measurement of voltage dependence of light induced H+ pumping". In this, Nagel et al. present "the first successful expression of the light driven H+ pump, bacteriorhodopsin, into the plasma membrane of oocytes from Xenopus laevis".
And given the recent citation of this article in the Scientific Background to the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, we wanted to take the chance to share this article now. The article is free to read by clicking "PDF" under the article information.
🔗 Read the Noble Prize announcement here: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2026/summary/
🔗 Read the article here: https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-5793(95)01356-3
From the Archive: Nagel et al., 1995.
FEBS Letters is pleased to share an article from our archive, which was recently cited in the Scientific Background to the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.