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Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel share the honor 5 October 2026 Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel received the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.” Today, optogenetics took the spotlight when the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026 was awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics .” This field uses light to stimulate, inhibit, and control neuron activity in the brain , with potential clinical benefits for treating neurological disorders . The brain serves as a computer for the body : it regulates body functions and systems, sends signals, stores memories and learned behaviors, and adapts as new behaviors and concepts are learned. One of the most complex organs in the human body, the brain does all this through a dense n...

Originally written by Catherine Couturie, University of Montreal edited by Lisa Lock , reviewed by Robert Egan Published in phy.org on September 28, 2026 Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain One of biology's fundamental questions is how our genes shape who we are . Adrian Serohijos and Stephen Michnick, professors in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at Université de Montréal's Faculty of Medicine , are studying the relationship between genotype and phenotype —that is, how DNA becomes RNA, then protein, and ultimately gives rise to observable characteristics in an individual or any other living organism. "We're trying to unravel the mechanisms of the genome , specifically how the information it encodes is processed inside the cell ," Serohijos says. The problem can be approached in two ways : One is to look at how an organism changes when disturbed by its environment . The other, pursued by researchers at the Courtois Institute of Innovati...

By transplanting human brain organoids into mice, researchers created a new in vivo platform that could advance the study of human neural functions and drug testing.    Originally written by Mariella Bodemeier Loayza Careaga, PhD, on Sep 16, 2026   Researchers created a new transplantation mouse model that shows extensive connectivity between human-derived brain organoid cells (green and red) and the mouse host brain (blue). Image credit: Pasca lab, Stanford University. (CC BY 4.0) F or over a decade, Stanford University neuroscientist Sergiu Pasca has looked for strategies to study human brain functions and its disorders. In Pasca’s eyes, using human induced pluripotent stem cells to create human-derived brain organoids—three-dimensional, self-organized tissues grown in a dish—and transplanting them into rodent hosts is an opportunity to achieve this goal. In a study published in Nature , his team described a new mouse model into which they transplanted human-derived ne...

Written by Sam Sholtis, Pennsylvania State University , on September 14, 2026 edited by Lisa Lock , reviewed by Robert Egan Credit: Molecular Cell (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel. 2026.07.012 A new 3D structure of a cancer-linked protein bound to its cellular partner reveals details of how the protein binds to chromosomes and could offer insights for future disease treatments . The protein— BRD4 —plays a critical role in how cells read, copy and repair DNA and helps determine how different kinds of cells are made ; it has been linked to many types of cancer and is considered a promising target for future therapies . The study, led by scientists at Penn State and published in the journal Molecular Cell , found that BRD4 can attach to DNA-packaging structures in cells even without a molecular signal long believed to be necessary for the interaction. Read more

Originally summarised and published by Walter Beckwith on April 16, 2026 Peer-Reviewed Publication American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Sex differences in the human brain at cell type resolution.  [Figure created with BioRender.com]   A new analysis of individual brain cells across several human brain regions reveals subtle but widespread differences in gene activity between male and female brains. This may help explain why some psychiatric and neurological disorders appear to affect the biological sexes differently, researchers report. Males and females, as defined by individuals with an XY and XX chromosomes, respectively, show marked differences in risk, prevalence, and progression of many psychiatric and neurological disorders.  Read more

Fuente: earth.com Published by Andrei Ionescu (Earth.com staff writer) in earth.com on 20 March 2026 Birch tar has long appeared at Neanderthal sites as a black, sticky residue – usually explained as a kind of prehistoric glue used to hold tools together. However, that simple picture may be missing something important. A new study from the  University of Cologne  and the  University of Oxford   suggests the same substance that helped Neanderthals build their tools may also have helped them treat wounds . When researchers recreated birch tar using ancient methods, they found it could slow the growth of bacteria linked to infection . The findings don’t prove Neanderthals practiced medicine . But they add to a growing body of evidence that these early humans were more than skilled hunters – they may also have been practical caregivers , using the materials around them to manage injury and disease. Read more