Washington, DC [US]: Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi have been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their groundbreaking discoveries in peripheral immune tolerance, a mechanism that keeps the immune system in check and prevents it from attacking the body’s own tissues.
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, made the announcement on Monday. The laureates, two from the United States and one from Japan, were recognized for revealing how the immune system distinguishes between harmful invaders and the body’s own cells, a process essential to preventing autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes. Their research has opened new avenues for treating various immune-related disorders.
Mary E. Brunkow, born in 1961, holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University and is a Senior Program Manager at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. Fred Ramsdell, born in 1960, earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and serves as a Scientific Advisor at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco. Shimon Sakaguchi, born in 1951, holds an MD and Ph.D. from Kyoto University and is a Distinguished Professor at the Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University, Japan.
The Nobel Prize carries a reward of 11 million Swedish kronor, to be shared equally among the three laureates. Officially known as the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, it has been awarded 115 times to 229 individuals since 1901. Last year’s award went to American scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA, genetic material that acts as on-off switches controlling cellular activity.
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, followed by the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics next Monday. The award ceremony is scheduled for December 10, commemorating the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite who founded the prizes in 1896.
