Georg Nagel
Georg Nagel
Georg Nagel studied biology and biophysics at the University of Konstanz, Germany. He received his PhD from the University of Frankfurt in 1988, working at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics. Currently, he is Full professor at University of Würzburg, Germany.
Research in Georg Nagel’s lab aims to understand the electrical properties of microbial photoreceptors by expression in animal cells. With this method he discovered the function of light-gated cation channels from the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, which he named channelrhodopsins: Channelrhodopsin-1 (ChR1) and ChR2. He demonstrated a strong, light-induced membrane depolarization after expression of ChR2 in human (HEK293) and other cells. Since his discovery of the channelrhodopsins he collaborated with neuroscientists who demonstrated light-induced action potentials and light-controlled behaviour of transgenic animals.
The light-activation of neurons by means of ChR2 became known as optogenetics and since the first characterisation of channelrhodopsins a number of natural and synthetic photoreceptors have been added to the optogenetics toolbox. His group continues to be interested in the characterization and generation of photoreceptors, as well as in their application in cells and living organisms.
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