Oxford University neuroscientists have now been named as winners in two out of the three years this major new prize has been awarded. Professor Péter Somogyi was a winner of the first Brain prize in 2011 for establishing methods for characterising nerve cell circuits in the brain, sharing the award with two others.
Professor Miesenböck is Director of the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at the University of Oxford. He shares the €1 million European award with five other scientists in Germany and the USA who developed the revolutionary optogenetics approach.
Gero Miesenböck wins 2013 Brain Prize for optogenetics
Awards and Appointments
11 March 2013
Professor Gero Miesenböck has been awarded The Brain Prize 2013 for his pioneering role in developing 'optogenetics', a revolutionary technique which uses light to control sets of nerve cells in order to reveal much about the brain.