The 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Americans Mary E. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell and to Japanese Shimon Sakaguchi for their studies on the mechanism by which the immune system reacts to infections.
The three scientists discovered how peripheral immune tolerance is regulated, the process that prevents the immune system from harming the body . They have thus paved the way for understanding and combating so-called autoimmune diseases , in which the immune system attacks its own body.
Their major contribution was to identify regulatory T cells, which act as sentinels, keeping immune cells at bay, preventing them from attacking the body to which they belong.
"Their discoveries have been crucial to understanding how the immune system works," said Nonel Committee President Olle Kämpe. The discovery, he added, provides insight into "why not all of us develop serious autoimmune diseases."
(Unioneonline)