MapLight Therapeutics Celebrates Co-Founder Dr. Karl Deisseroth on Receipt of 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the Development of Optogenetics
Key Highlights
- ➤Karl Deisseroth awarded 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for optogenetics discoveries
- ➤MapLight’s Phase 2 ZEPHYR study of ML-007C-MA met its primary endpoint
- ➤MapLight plans FDA EOP2 meeting before Phase 3 schizophrenia study
- ➤MapLight plans FDA EOP2 meeting for Phase 3 autism irritability program
Expert Statements
Karl Deisseroth, Co-founder and Scientific Advisory Board member of MapLight Therapeutics
“Optogenetics began as a way to ask a basic question: how does electrical activity in specific cells give rise to human behavior and emotion?”
Karl Deisseroth, Co-founder and Scientific Advisory Board member of MapLight Therapeutics
“Neuroscience has long needed a better understanding of the functional biology of neural circuits and the relationship between circuit dysfunction and disease.”
Karl Deisseroth, Co-founder and Scientific Advisory Board member of MapLight Therapeutics
“I am deeply grateful to the institutions, trainees, and colleagues that have enabled and supported my work over the years, and to Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their foundational contributions.”
Karl Deisseroth, Co-founder and Scientific Advisory Board member of MapLight Therapeutics
“As a practicing psychiatrist, seeing these basic biological discoveries move from the lab into human clinical trials is the ultimate realization of this work.”
Christopher Kroeger, Chief Executive Officer of MapLight Therapeutics
“On behalf of everyone at MapLight, congratulations to Karl on this monumental achievement.”
Christopher Kroeger, Chief Executive Officer of MapLight Therapeutics
“The Nobel recognition of Karl’s academic work is a triumph for basic science and underscores the transformative impact of understanding the brain at the circuit level.”
Christopher Kroeger, Chief Executive Officer of MapLight Therapeutics
“Karl’s Nobel work inspired MapLight’s founding premise: that understanding the causal relationship between neural circuits and behavior can enable a more precise approach to developing medicines for complex CNS disorders.”
Christopher Kroeger, Chief Executive Officer of MapLight Therapeutics
“We are incredibly proud to celebrate this extraordinary honor with Karl and to continue advancing the mission that his work inspired.”
Award honors foundational discoveries in optogenetics and circuit mapping
These discoveries laid the foundation for a new era in neuroscience and helped inspire MapLight’s circuit-based approach to drug discovery
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