News Archive

Award for discovery of light-activated ion channels and their application in neurobiology

December 2010. Ernst Bamberg (Max Planck Institute of Biophysics Frankfurt), Georg Nagel (University Würzburg) and Peter Hegemann (Humboldt University Berlin) have been awarded the Karl Heinz Beckurts Award 2010 for their discovery of light-activated ion channels and their application in neurobiology. Thanks to their work, single neurons can be switched on and off by optical signals. Their discovery offers enormous clinical potential for numerous biomedical fields of application, e.g. the treatment and cure of neurological diseases such as Parkinson's or epilepsy.

The Karl Heinz Beckurts Foundation honours up to three outstanding scientific/technical achievements each year; achievements that have already resulted in or are expected to offer substantial impetus towards industrial innovation. Each award in endowed with 30.000 €.

Link http://www.nncn.de/nachrichten-en/karlheinzbeckurtspreis2010/view?set_language=en
Link http://www.biophys.mpg.de/en/institute/biophysical-chemistry/prof-bamberg.html