The Nobel optogenetics drama: forgotten inventor Zhuo-Hua Pan had the stronger claim
_onionesque · x · 2026-10-06
RT of @jamesrhowe6 on the Nobel Prize controversy: the least-discussed figure in optogenetics, Zhuo-Hua Pan of Wayne State University, may have the strongest claim to inventing the technique.
- A 2016 STAT exclusive argues optogenetics — making neurons light-sensitive — is one of neuroscience's biggest breakthroughs in decades, with potential to treat blindness, Parkinson's, and chronic pain, and now widely used to study sleep, addiction, and sensation.
- The two Americans usually credited as inventors work at prestigious institutions, but Pan did the key early work, is the only one with a real shot at turning optogenetics into an actual therapy, and was overlooked simply because he wasn't at a famous lab.
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