Nobel Prize honors optogenetics pioneers; Roche licenses Alector’s Parkinson’s enzyme therapy

The Nobel Committee awarded this year’s Physiology or Medicine prize to three scientists whose work created the field of optogenetics. Their discoveries of a light‑sensing protein in algae and its conversion into a neuronal switch are being hailed as the foundation of a new era in neuroscience.

Roche’s Genentech division has secured full rights from Alector to develop an enzyme replacement therapy, designated AL050, aimed at treating Parkinson’s disease and related brain disorders linked to GBA1 mutations. The agreement gives Roche control over the candidate’s development and commercialization.

In a separate regulatory update, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the approved use of an Eli Lilly blood‑cancer drug, allowing it to be prescribed for a broader patient population.