[16][19][21] The principle of optogenetic control established by Miesenböck[15][16] has been widely adopted, generalised to other biological systems, and technically improved.

[22][23][24] Most of Miesenböck's work continues to be done with Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies), where it is possible to gain detailed insight into molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms of brain function that may relate to human health.

[25] Before being appointed to the Waynflete Professorship in 2007, Miesenböck held faculty positions at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Yale University.

[27] In 2012 Miesenböck was awarded the InBev-Baillet Latour International Health Prize[1] for "pioneering optogenetic approaches to manipulate neuronal activity and to control animal behaviour".

Miesenboeck has exploited optogenetics in a succession of brilliant experiments illuminating synaptic connectivity, the neural basis of reward, mechanisms of sleep homeostasis and the control of sexually dimorphic circuitry.

[35] In 2019, Miesenböck received the Rumford Prize for "extraordinary contributions related to the invention and refinement of optogenetics," with Ernst Bamberg, Ed Boyden, Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel.