The Conversation: When Karl Deisseroth was studying to be a doctor in the 1990s, he took a rotation working with psychiatric patients. It would start him down a path of discovery about how the brain works that would eventually lead him to become a Nobel laureate.

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When Karl Deisseroth was studying to be a doctor in the 1990s, he took a rotation working with psychiatric patients. It would start him down a path of discovery about how the brain works that would eventually lead him to become a Nobel laureate.

The brain is billions of fragile, extremely vulnerable, transparent, very fast-acting cells. It’s a very challenging system to study, and of course, buried within the skull and doing very complex things … I was very much impressed with the magnitude of the challenge.

Deisseroth, today a professor in the schools of medicine and engineering at Stanford University in the US, spoke to The Conversation Weekly podcast about his research, and the experience of being jointly awarded the 2026 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine with two German scientists, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel.

Deisseroth’s contribution was for pioneering the field of optogenetics, the ability to control nerve cells with light to investigate how their activity shapes our feelings and behaviour. To do this, he used a gene from a single-celled pond algae, discovered by Hegemann and Nagel.

We were able to find cells that were involved in hunger and thirst, basic survival drives. We were able to identify cells and pathways controlling aggression and defensiveness and parenting, nurturing of the young … all the different parts of anxiety … memory, motivation. The general applicability became clear over the subsequent years.

Listen to Deisseroth talk about his research journey, and his hopes for the future of optogenetic research, on The Conversation Weekly podcast.

Disclosure statement

Karl Deisseroth has received funding from the NIH and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He was the founder of MapLight Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company.

Credits

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Gemma Ware, Grace Jennings-Edquist and Isabella Podwinski. Mixing by Lloyd Barrett and theme music by Neeta Sarl.

Newsclip in this episode from the Nobel Prize.

Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here. A transcript of this episode is available via the Apple Podcasts or Spotify apps.

Author

Gemma WareHead of Audio, The Conversation UK

Interviewed

Karl DeisserothD. H. Chen Professor, Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.64628/AB.7mvyqtrhw

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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.

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The Conversation: When Karl Deisseroth was studying to be a doctor in the 1990s, he took a rotation working with psychiatric patients. It would start him down a path of discovery about how the brain works that would eventually lead him to become a Nobel laureate.

Disclosure statement