Mon Oct 06 09:37:31 UTC 2025: ## Immune System Pioneers Win Nobel Prize for Groundbreaking Tolerance Research
**Stockholm, Sweden** – Three scientists, Mary E. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell of the United States and Shimon Sakaguchi of Japan, have been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their crucial discoveries about how the immune system is kept in check, preventing it from attacking the body. The Karolinska Institute announced the award on Monday, recognizing the trio’s “groundbreaking discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance that prevents the immune system from harming the body.”
Their research, dating back to Sakaguchi’s initial 1995 discovery and further breakthroughs by Brunkow and Ramsdell in 2001, followed by Sakaguchi linking all their work two years later, has been hailed as foundational to understanding how the immune system distinguishes between friend and foe. Marie Wahren-Herlenius, a rheumatology professor at the Karolinska Institute, explained that their work “relates to how we keep our immune system under control so we can fight all imaginable microbes and still avoid autoimmune disease.”
The 11 million Swedish kronor ($1.17 million) prize will be shared equally between the three scientists. Olle Kampe, chair of the Nobel Committee, emphasized the decisive impact of their work on our understanding of immune system function, while the prize-awarding body stated that “their discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of research and spurred the development of new treatments, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases.”
Secretary-General of the Nobel Committee, Thomas Perlmann, managed to contact Sakaguchi, who expressed incredible gratitude and described the award as a “fantastic honour.”
The Nobel Prize in Medicine traditionally marks the beginning of the annual Nobel announcements, which cover science, literature, peace, and economics. While US President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated his belief that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, the timeline for nominations makes his receiving the award this year highly improbable.
First Piper 