For his groundbreaking work with lasers in the development and implementation of optogenetics, Karl Deisseroth, a psychiatrist and an engineer in the Bioengineering Department at Stanford University (Stanford, CA), will receive the Berthold Leibinger Zukunftspreis 2018 on September 21st in Ditzingen, Germany.
Optogenetics is one of the tools for neuroscience that Deisseroth and his students have progressed, developed, and implemented to a new level, virtually giving birth to a new field of science. Optogenetics combines the findings of light-sensitive bacterial membrane proteins and protein-engineering genetic techniques that enable targeted implantation of the protein-encoding DNA into specific types of neurons and optical laser techniques for highly resolved time and spatial activation, deactivation, and reading of neurons in 3D volumes of large neural networks or down to the sub-cellular level.
The international prize has been awarded biennially by the private foundation Berthold Leibinger Stiftung since 2006 to a single researcher for a contribution breaking new grounds in or using laser technology. The jury of 10 international renowned scientists and industry leaders selects the prize winner from non-disclosed nominations. The prize is endowed with prize money of 50,000 euros.
For more information, please visit www.leibinger-stiftung.de.