STOCKHOLM, October 6. /TASS/. The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for 2025 will be given to Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi, the Nobel Committee said.
The scientists were honored with the prize "for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance," it said.
The committee said that the body's immune system needs to be kept in balance, or it will attack its own organs. This year's laureates "identified the immune system’s security guards, regulatory T cells, thus laying the foundation for a new field of research. The discoveries have also led to the development of potential medical treatments that are now being evaluated in clinical trials. The hope is to be able to treat or cure autoimmune diseases, provide more effective cancer treatments and prevent serious complications after stem cell transplants."
The 2025 laureates identified the protectors of the immune system — regulatory T cells that prevent immune cells from attacking the body. "Their discoveries have been decisive for our understanding of how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases," said Olle Kampe, chair of the Nobel Committee.
In 1995, Sakaguchi discovered a class of immune cells that protect the body from autoimmune diseases. The American scientists made another discovery in 2001, explaining why some experimental mice are particularly susceptible to autoimmune diseases. They found a mutation in the FOXP3 gene in mice, and also showed that mutations in the human equivalent of this gene cause a serious autoimmune disease, IPEX syndrome.
