(KRON) -- A Stanford University professor has been named as one of the three recipients for the 2026 Nobel Prize in medicine. Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, a Stanford professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences was announced as the recipient of the honor on Monday. Deisseroth, 54, received the award along with Peter Hegemann and George Nagel for research into a new field known as optogenetics that combines light with genes to switch on and off neurons in living brains. Separate research from the trio -- Hegemann and Nagel live in Germany -- resulted in a technique that helps to identify neural pathways responsible for behavior and disease. Married couple found shot outside Oakland home identified It could lead to treatments such as restoring some vision in people with a genetic form of blindness. Experts said the advancements greatly expanded the understanding of how the brain is organized. "It has let us go from a 'Rand McNally' road atlas of the brain to something more akin to 'Google Earth,'" said neuroscientist Patrick Forcelli of Georgetown University in an email. Deisseroth, 54, is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and Stanford University professor in California. Hegemann, 71, is at Humboldt University in Berlin, and Nagel, 73, most recently worked at the University of Würzburg, also in Germany, the assembly said. Brain cells use electrical signals to communicate with each other, but normally they don't respond to light, Deisseroth told The Associated Press. He used what he calls “a trick from nature," putting the gene that controls that microbial protein into certain cells in the brains of living mice. Beaming light at those cells — first by using tiny fibers, now with noninvasive methods — can turn neurons on or off while animals do various tasks. “People usually think about light as a way of collecting information to observe things,” he told the AP. “But this is the opposite of that. This is using light to control things, to make things happen, and to do it in a very precise way.” Optogenetics is mostly a research tool to learn how specific neurons and neural circuits work. Deisseroth, who describes himself as a night owl, said he was up late working on papers and emailing students. He had just gone to lie down when he got a call from the Nobel Assembly. "I almost couldn't speak for a little bit," he said. "I almost felt as if I'd lost the power of forming words." He quickly recovered, telling the Associated Press that amid all the congratulations Monday morning, he still had to pack school lunches for his children. "That's my one obligation I have in the next few hours, to make sure I make their sandwiches," he said. The Associated Press contributed to this story. ...read more read less