The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries on peripheral immune tolerance, the mechanism that prevents the immune system from attacking the body’s own tissues.
Axar.az reports that the Nobel Prize Organization announced this in their press release.
Sakaguchi first identified regulatory T cells (Tregs) in 1995, challenging the belief that immune tolerance occurs only in the thymus.
Later, in 2001, Brunkow and Ramsdell discovered that mutations in the Foxp3 gene cause autoimmune diseases in mice and humans. Sakaguchi subsequently linked Foxp3 to the development of regulatory T cells.
Their work revolutionized the understanding of immune regulation and paved the way for new therapies targeting autoimmune diseases, cancer, and organ transplantation.