The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was started by three researchers for their contributions to our understanding of immune tolerance.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded on Monday to three researchers who furthered our knowledge of immune system regulation. They made, “discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance,” according to the Nobel Prize committee. In other words, their work has helped explain how our body differentiates self from non-self and good from bad. These advancements could have profound impacts on myriad aspects of human health, from cancer to autoimmune diseases to chronic viral infections.
The laureates are Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi. Brunkow was award the prize for work she completed at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. Ramsdell conducted his research at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco. Sakaguchi conducted his worked at Osaka University in Osaka, Japan.
The human immune system is quite remarkable and quite precise. It largely protects us from viral, bacterial and fungal invaders. But it allows commensal microbes to exist within our GI tract. It can detect and destroy tumor cells, thereby lowering our risk of developing cancer. But it generally does not attack non-cancerous cells. It protects a fetus from pathogens during pregnancy, even though the fetal cells are different from the maternal cells.
