Wiley Prize Goes To Ernst Bamberg

Ernst Bamberg, a professor and director of the department of biophysical chemistry at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, in Frankfurt, is one of three winners of this year’s Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences.

Bamberg will share the $35,000 prize with Peter Hegemann, a professor of molecular biophysics at Humboldt University, in Berlin, and Georg Nagel, a professor of molecular plant physiology at the University of Würzburg, in Germany. The honor is given by the Wiley Foundation to recognize breakthrough research in pure or applied life sciences.

The researchers were cited for their discovery of channelrhodopsins, a family of light-activated ion channels. Channelrhodopsins could be employed in biomedical applications such as optical deep-brain stimulation for the treatment of Parkinson’s and other diseases.