Belgium

Brussels, 6 October 2026. The Belgian press welcomes the 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine through the prism of brain and eye health. Awarded on Monday, 5 October to American Karl Deisseroth and Germans Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel, the prize rewards optogenetics, a technique that allows for the activation or deactivation of specific neurons with light.

VRT NWS covers the day live and explains in simple terms: the discovery was born out of the curiosity of Peter Hegemann, a biophysicist, who wanted to know why a green alga reacts so quickly to light. The Flemish media outlet talks about a "light switch" in nerve cells, validated in mice and rats. It mainly retains the insight provided into depression, addiction, anxiety, and dementia. The channel also invites science journalist Koen Wauters to explain in the Journal how these studies can help patients.

Neurophysiologist Wim Vanduffel (KU Leuven) provides the Belgian academic guarantee: "No one had ever thought that fundamental research on algae would lead to such a breakthrough." VRT emphasizes that the technique is used in laboratories around the world and recalls the amount: 12 million Swedish crowns per laureate, approximately one million euros.

La Libre Belgique, on the Francophone side, focuses on clinical applications, particularly degenerative diseases of the retina, in its title. It quotes the jury, which mentions a technology that allows us to understand "how nerve cells influence our memories, emotions, and behaviors," with millisecond precision using light beams. The newspaper also notes that some saw the pioneers of GLP-1, the origin of Ozempic or Wegovy, as big favorites.

The two editorial teams therefore converge on the same reading: a reward for fundamental research whose therapeutic fallout remains to come, VRT situating it in the understanding of mental disorders, La Libre in vision. VRT finally recalls the calendar: physics the next day, chemistry on Wednesday, literature on Thursday, peace on Friday.