Scientists Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi have been awarded with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025.
Brunkow (Institute for Systems Biology,Seattle USA), Ramsdell (Sonoma Biotherapeutics,San Francisco USA) and Sakaguchi (Osaka University,Osaka Japan) were awarded for “their discoveries concerning regional immune tolerance”, as it has been mentioned on a Press statement from the Academy.
Press Lease from the Nobel Academy
They discovered how the immune system is kept in check
The body’s powerful immune system must be regulated, or it may attack our own organs. Mary E.
Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
2025 for their groundbreaking discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance that prevents the
immune system from harming the body.
Every day, our immune system protects us from thousands of different microbes trying to invade our
bodies. These all have different appearances, and many have developed similarities with human cells
as a form of camouflage. So how does the immune system determine what it should a>ack and what it
should defend?
Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine 2025 for their fundamental discoveries relating to peripheral immune tolerance. The
laureates identified the immune system’s security guards, regulatory T cells, which prevent immune cells
from a>acking our own body.
“Their discoveries have been decisive for our under- standing of how the immune system functions and why
we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases,” says Olle Kämpe, chair of the Nobel Committee.
Shimon Sakaguchi was swimming against the tide in 1995, when he made the first key discovery. At the
time, many researchers were convinced that immune tolerance only developed due to potentially harmful
immune cells being eliminated in the thymus, through a process called central tolerance. Sakaguchi showed
that the immune system is more complex and discovered a previously unknown class of immune
cells, which protect the body from autoimmune diseases.
Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell made the other key discovery in 2001, when they presented the
explanation for why a specific mouse strain was particularly vulnerable to autoimmune diseases.
They had discovered that the mice have a mutation in a gene that they named Foxp3. They also showed that
mutations in the human equivalent of this gene cause a serious autoimmune disease, IPEX.
Two years after this, Shimon Sakaguchi was able to link these discoveries. He proved that the Foxp3 gene
governs the development of the cells he identified in
These cells, now known as regulatory T cells, monitor other immune cells and ensure that our
immune system tolerates our own tissues. The laureates’ discoveries launched the field of
peripheral tolerance, spurring the development of medical treatments for cancer and autoimmune
diseases. This may also lead to more successful transplantations. Several of these treatments are now
undergoing clinical trials.
- Mary E. Brunkow, born 1961. Ph.D. from Princeton University,
Princeton, USA. Senior Program Manager at the Institute for
Systems Biology, Seattle, USA. - Fred Ramsdell, born 1960. Ph.D. 1987 from the University of
California, Los Angeles, USA. Scientific Advisor, Sonoma
Biotherapeutics, San Francisco, USA. - Shimon Sakaguchi, born 1951. M.D. 1976 and Ph.D. 1983 from
Kyoto University, Japan. Distinguished Professor at the
Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University, Japan.
BREAKING NEWS
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 6, 2025
The 2025 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi “for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.” pic.twitter.com/nhjxJSoZEr
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