The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2025 has been awarded jointly to Mary E Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their groundbreaking work on peripheral immune tolerance, a vital mechanism that prevents the immune system from attacking the body’s own tissues.
Brunkow, a senior program manager at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle; Ramsdell, a scientific adviser at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco; and Sakaguchi, a professor at Osaka University, revealed the critical role of regulatory T cells in maintaining immune system balance. Their discoveries have advanced the understanding of autoimmune diseases and hold promise for improving transplant success and developing new cancer therapies.
The laureates will share 11 million Swedish kronor (around $1.2 million) and will receive their awards at a ceremony on December 10, 2025, at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. This marks the 116th Nobel Prize in Medicine, highlighting the continuing importance of immune system research in modern medicine.
