The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to American scientists and a Japanese scientist
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to American scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell, as well as Japanese scientist Simon Sakaguta. This was announced by the Nobel Committee on October 6.
“They are being awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their revolutionary discoveries about peripheral immune tolerance, which prevents the immune system from harming the body. Laureates discovered “guards” in the immune system – regulatory T-lymphocytes, which prevent cells of the immune system from attacking their carrier”, – it says in the document.
Brunkov, Ramsdell and Sakaguti made significant contributions to the study of key mechanisms of immune system regulation. In the late 1990s, they independently demonstrated that regulatory T lymphocytes (Tregs) play a critical role in preventing autoimmune diseases. Their research showed that mutations in the FOXP3 gene lead to the loss of these cells and the development of severe immune tolerance disorders.
The work of the laureates laid the foundation for the modern understanding of how the immune system distinguishes between “its” and “strangers” cells The discovery of the FOXP3 gene and the functions of Tregs helped explain the nature of many autoimmune diseases and opened the way to new treatments for type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and cancer.
“Their discoveries have become crucial to understanding how our immune system works and why not everyone develops serious autoimmune diseases”, – said the chairman of the Nobel Committee, Olle Kempe.
Mary Brunkow, an immunologist by profession, graduated from Princeton University and worked at the biopharmaceutical company Amgen, where she participated in research into the genetic basis of immune regulation. Her laboratory was the first to identify mutations in a specific gene in mice with immune pathology. Now Brunkov works at the Institute of Systems Biology in Seattle, USA.
Fred Ramsdell is an American researcher, a graduate of the University of California in Los Angeles. He worked for ZymoGenetics and later became director of research at the Cancer Immunotherapy Institute in San Francisco. Ramsdell confirmed the role of the FOXP3 gene in the formation of regulatory T-lymphocytes and linked this discovery to the clinical manifestations of autoimmune diseases in humans.
Simon Sakaguti is a graduate of Kyoto University and an honored professor at Osaka University. He is one of the pioneers of regulatory T cells. Back in the 1980s, Sakaguti discovered that the absence of these cells causes autoimmune reactions, laying the theoretical foundation for further discoveries.
