On October 5, Sweden's Caroline Medical School announced that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine will be awarded to three scientists, Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel, in recognition of their discoveries in photo-gated ion channels and optogenetics. The Nobel Prize Committee wrote in a press release that the technology “makes it possible to turn on or off the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain.” Today, the industrialization of optogenetics is accelerating globally. According to estimates by several research institutes, the market size of optogenetic gene therapy will grow rapidly as indications expand and technological maturity increases. According to pipeline progress and market demand estimates, the global market size is expected to exceed 20 billion US dollars in 2030. The retinal disease circuit is the most competitive battleground in the world. Nanoscope Therapeutics is one of the leaders in this field. Its therapy based on the MCO platform is a vitreous injection therapy that requires no genetic testing, no invasive surgery, and can be completed in the clinic. It reconstructs the visual pathway by activating the photosensitivity of retinal bipolar cells. In January 2026, Nanoscope obtained a core patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office, covering its MCO technology platform. The patent protection period is until 2039. The company has initiated phase III registered clinical trials of MCO-010. Chinese companies are also growing at an accelerated pace. Suzhou Xingming Youjian is representative of domestic optogenetic therapy. Its core pipeline UGX202 is an optogenetic gene therapy that delivers photosensitive protein through AAV to enable retinal ganglion cells to obtain photosensitivity. It is intended to treat diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt disease, achoroidosis, and advanced dry age-related macular degeneration.

On October 5, Sweden's Caroline Medical School announced that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine will be awarded to three scientists, Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel, in recognition of their discoveries in photo-gated ion channels and optogenetics. The Nobel Prize Committee wrote in a press release that the technology “makes it possible to turn on or off the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain.” Today, the industrialization of optogenetics is accelerating globally. According to estimates by several research institutes, the market size of optogenetic gene therapy will grow rapidly as indications expand and technological maturity increases. According to pipeline progress and market demand estimates, the global market size is expected to exceed 20 billion US dollars in 2030. The retinal disease circuit is the most competitive battleground in the world. Nanoscope Therapeutics is one of the leaders in this field. Its therapy based on the MCO platform is a vitreous injection therapy that requires no genetic testing, no invasive surgery, and can be completed in the clinic. It reconstructs the visual pathway by activating the photosensitivity of retinal bipolar cells. In January 2026, Nanoscope obtained a core patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office, covering its MCO technology platform. The patent protection period is until 2039. The company has initiated phase III registered clinical trials of MCO-010. Chinese companies are also growing at an accelerated pace. Suzhou Xingming Youjian is representative of domestic optogenetic therapy. Its core pipeline UGX202 is an optogenetic gene therapy that delivers photosensitive protein through AAV to enable retinal ganglion cells to obtain photosensitivity. It is intended to treat diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt disease, achoroidosis, and advanced dry age-related macular degeneration.