{"text":[[{"start":7.1,"text":"Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel have won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries about using light to switch brain nerve cells on or off to reveal mysteries about the body’s most complex organ."}],[{"start":21,"text":"The three used a protein from single-celled algae to establish the technique, known as optogenetics, which organisers of the 125-year-old Nobel Prizes hailed as the “foundation of a new era in neuroscience”."}],[{"start":35.55,"text":"By controlling nerve cell activity, researchers were able to match signature brain patterns to specific memories, feelings and behaviours that characterise neurological and psychiatric disorders."}],[{"start":46.599999999999994,"text":"“Optogenetics provides opportunities for mapping the brain in a way that we could once only dream of,” said Per Svenningsson, chair of the Nobel committee for physiology or medicine."}],[{"start":58.599999999999994,"text":"The news, announced in Stockholm on Monday, kicks off the annual Nobel Prize season. Awards in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics will all be unveiled over the next week."}],[{"start":70.8,"text":"The three optogenetic researchers will share equally the SKr12mn ($1.2mn) prize pot. The trio had been “very surprised” to receive news of their win, said Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the body at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute that awards the physiology or medicine prize."}],[{"start":89.19999999999999,"text":"“This is primarily a tool for basic research that will prove immensely important for . . . understanding of disease,” Perlmann said."}],[{"start":97.29999999999998,"text":"Hegemann began his research after observing a type of algae known as Chlamydomonas and wondering what made it able to swim towards a light source. He and Nagel discovered the crucial protein, known as channelrhodopsin, on the algal cell’s surface."}],[{"start":112.69999999999999,"text":"When the protein is illuminated by blue light, a channel opens through it. This allows the entry of charged particles known as ions, creating an electrical impulse."}],[{"start":122.29999999999998,"text":"Deisseroth introduced the gene that instructs the manufacture of channelrhodopsin into nerve cells from rats, a breakthrough unveiled in 2005. Two years later, he showed that this light-controlled switch for nerve cells worked in the brains of living mice."}],[{"start":140.04999999999998,"text":"The technique of optogenetics “gives us hope” of improving our scant knowledge about the brain, said Anna Wedell, a professor of clinical genetics and adjunct member of the Nobel Prize committee."}],[{"start":152.54999999999998,"text":"“It’s a tremendous step forward to be able to link nerve cells and their function to specific behaviours,” Wedell said. “We can also understand how different cells speak to each other across the brain.”"}],[{"start":163.99999999999997,"text":"Optogenetics has been used experimentally in an effort to partly restore sight to patients blinded by eye conditions known as retinitis pigmentosa. The approach, which is in clinical trials, uses optogenetics to stimulate a response in healthy cells that remain."}],[{"start":180.39999999999998,"text":"Deisseroth works in the US at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University, while the other two researchers are based in Germany. "}],[{"start":189.99999999999997,"text":"Hegemann is based at the Humboldt University of Berlin, although he made his prize discoveries at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried. Nagel is a plant physiology and biophysics specialist at the University of Würzburg who did his prize research at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics in Frankfurt."}],[{"start":215.89999999999998,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1791212848_2789.mp3"}