Physiology Nobel 2025 to Three for Human Immune System Research
Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi have been 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.
[(from L to R) Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi (Illustration: (Niklas Elmehed/Nobel Prize Outreach)]
Nobel Prize 2025: Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi have been 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.
Mary E. Brunkow is associated with Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, USA; Fred Ramsdell belongs to Sonoma Biotherapeutics, San Francisco, USA and Shimon Sakaguchi is affiliated with Osaka University, Japan.
The three Nobel laureates have identified the immune system’s security guards, regulatory T cells, which prevent immune cells from attacking our own body, the Nobel Committee said while announcing the award today.
“Their discoveries have been decisive for our understanding of how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases,” says Olle Kämpe, chair of the Nobel Committee.
About Mary E. Brunkow
Mary E. Brunkow, the joint winner of Nobel 2025 in Medicine, was born in 1961.
A Princeton graduate alumna, Mary Brunkow was affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA, USA at the time of receiving the Nobel Award.
Brunkow is Senior Program Manager at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. She received her Ph.D. from Princeton in 1991 in Molecular Biology.
About Fred Ramsdell
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology joint winner, Fred Ramsdell, was born on December 4, 1960 in Elmhurst, Illinois, USA.
Fred Ramsdell was affiliated with the Sonoma Biotherapeutics, San Fransisco, CA, USA at the time of receiving the 2025 Nobel Award.
Frederick Ramsdell is an American immunologist and Research Director at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy in San Francisco.
He graduated from the University of California, San Diego in 1983 with a degree in Biology and from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1987 with a Ph.D. in Immunology.
About Shimon Sakaguchi
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine joint winner, Shimon Sakaguchi, was born on January 19, 1951 in Nagahama, Shiga, Japan.
Shimon Sakaguchi was affiliated with the Osaka University, Japan at the time of receiving the 2025 Nobel Award.
An immunologist and a Distinguished Professor of Osaka University, Sakaguchi received an M.D. in 1976 and a Ph.D. in 1982, both from Kyoto University. He performed postdoctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University as a Lucille P. Markey Scholar.
Joint Research
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, the Nobel Committee said.
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 1995. 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.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Nobel Prize 2024 Winners
Last year, the Nobel Peace Prize 2024 was awarded to Japan's atomic bomb survivors' group Nihon Hidankyo for its efforts to ban nuclear weapons.
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to U.S. scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.
On October 08, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 to John J. Hopfield of Princeton University, NJ, USA and Geoffrey E. Hinton University of Toronto, Canada.
On October 09, 2024, the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly conferred on David Baker of U.S.A., and Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper of the United Kingdom for their research on protein.
On October 10, 2024, the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature conferred on South Korean author Han Kang for her work on the fragility of human life.
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