Researchers Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine from 2025, a distinction for their fundamental discoveries on peripheral immune tolerance – the mechanism that prevents the immune system from attacking their own tissues.
Photo: YouTube video capture
“The discoveries of the laureates gave rise to the field of peripheral tolerance, stimulating the development of medical treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases. transmitted the Nobel committee, quoted by News.ro.
Who are the laureates
Mary E. Brunkow, Institute for Systemic Biology, Seattle, USA
Fred Ramsdell, Sonoma Biotherapeutics, San Francisco, USA
Shimon Sakaguchi, Osaka University, Japan
Essential discoveries
In 1995, Shimon Sakaguchi showed that immune tolerance is not based only on the elimination of harmful cells in the thymus (central tolerance), but there is a second control line: regulatory t cells, which protect the body from autoimmune diseases.
In 2001, Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell discovered that a gene, Foxp3, play a key role in developing these cells. Moving the gene to people causes a serious autoimmune disease, called Ipex.
In 2003, Sakaguchi demonstrated the direct connection between FOXP3 and regulatory T cells, strengthening the basis for new immunological therapies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuut_3yyd6s
Impact for medicine
These discoveries explain why the immune system does not attack their own tissues and why some people develop severe autoimmune diseases. They open the way to innovative treatments against cancer, autoimmune diseases and transplants.
“Their discoveries were decisive to understand how the immune system works and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases,” said Olle Kämpe, the chairman of the Nobel committee.
The Nobel season continues this week: Tuesday will be awarded the Prize for Physics, Wednesday, Thursday for Literature, and on Friday the Nobel Peace Prize. On October 13, the laureates for the economy will be announced.
