Georg Nagel (born 24 August 1953 inWeingarten, Germany) is a biophysicist and professor at the Department for Neurophysiology at theUniversity of Würzburg in Germany. His research is focused on microbial photoreceptors and the development of optogenetic tools.
Georg Nagel, together withPeter Hegemann, is credited with the discovery ofchannelrhodopsins, which opened the new field ofoptogenetics.[1] Early in 1995, Georg Nagel andErnst Bamberg demonstrated that a microbial rhodopsin (Bacteriorhodopsin), when expressed in animal cells (Xenopus oocytes), is fully functional and makes the cells light-sensitive.[2] In 2003, Nagel showed the functionality ofchannelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) in a mammalian cell line, where illumination with blue light caused a strong depolarization of the membrane potential.[3] Following this proof-of-principle publication, ChR2 was expressed in hippocampal neurons in collaboration withKarl Deisseroth, where light pulses caused action potentials with high temporal precision.[4] The first application of optogenetics in an intact animal, the round wormCaenorhabditis elegans, published 2005 by Georg Nagel andAlexander Gottschalk, was based on a ChR2 mutant (H134R) Nagel had created to improve photocurrents.[5] The first successful optogenetic inhibition of neuronal spiking (2007) was based on Nagel's earlier experiments withhalorhodopsin fromNatronomonas pharaonis.[6] In 2007, in another collaboration withPeter Hegemann, Georg Nagel started the optogenetic manipulation of cAMP.[7] In 2015, Georg Nagel and Shiqiang Gao, together withAlexander Gottschalk's group, characterized the first 8 TM enzymerhodopsin, Cyclop, which raises the concentration of cGMP when activated with light.[8] Through the development of genetically encoded tools, Georg Nagel's group has pushed the boundaries of optical control fromion channels andpumps tosecond messenger systems, and has applied them to many different types of organisms, including plants.[9]
