2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine Honors Breakthrough in Peripheral Immune Tolerance
Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi win the 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine for groundbreaking discoveries in peripheral immune tolerance and regulatory T cells, enabling new treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer.
- • Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their research on peripheral immune tolerance.
- • Sakaguchi discovered in 1995 a new class of T regulatory cells that protect against autoimmune diseases.
- • Brunkow and Ramsdell identified a genetic mutation causing severe autoimmune disease in 2001.
- • The discoveries paved the way for new treatments for autoimmune disorders and cancer, highlighting the importance of peripheral tolerance.
Key details
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their pioneering research on peripheral immune tolerance and regulatory T cells, crucial mechanisms that prevent harmful immune responses. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden recognized their work for revolutionizing our understanding of how the immune system operates without damaging the body's own tissues.
Shimon Sakaguchi's landmark discovery in 1995 identified a class of T regulatory cells that protect against autoimmune diseases, challenging the prior belief that immune tolerance was solely achieved by eliminating potentially harmful cells in the thymus. Subsequently, in 2001, Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell pinpointed a genetic mutation linked to severe autoimmune disease, providing insight into how immune regulation can fail. By 2003, Sakaguchi further demonstrated that the Foxp3 gene controls the development of these regulatory T cells.
These discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of immunological research, referred to as peripheral tolerance, which has significant clinical implications for treating autoimmune diseases and cancer. The Nobel Committee highlighted that this understanding opens pathways for novel medical therapies targeting immune modulation.
The laureates will equally share the prize of 11 million Swedish Kronor, approximately R$ 6.2 million, marking a significant milestone at the start of Nobel Prize Week 2025, which continues with awards in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Economics in the following days.
Established in 1901, the Nobel Prizes remain among the world's most prestigious recognitions of groundbreaking achievements across disciplines, celebrated with formal ceremonies and royal attendance.
This award spotlights how foundational biological research can drive transformative healthcare advances globally, including in Brazil and beyond.