International Nobel Prize in Medicine for immunologists from Japan and the USA
This year's Nobel Prize for Medicine goes to Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell (both USA) and Shimon Sakaguchi (Japan). They are being honored for their discoveries on so-called peripheral immune tolerance, which prevents the immune system from harming the body. This was announced by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The most important award for physicians is endowed with 11 million Swedish crowns (around one million euros).
06.10.2025, 11:56
SDA
Foundation stone for new field of research
According to the citation, the discoveries made by the three researchers have laid the foundation for a new field of research and advanced the development of new treatment methods, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Specifically, it is about mechanisms that prevent the immune system from damaging the body.
The prizewinners identified safety mechanisms of the immune system, the regulatory T cells, which prevent immune cells from attacking the body. "We now have a better understanding of how the immune system works and why not all of us develop a serious autoimmune disease," explained Olle Kämpe, Chairman of the Nobel Committee.
Research in Japan and the USA
Brunkow was born in 1961. She completed her doctorate at Princeton University in the USA and works at the Institute for Systems Biology in the US West Coast metropolis of Seattle. The 64-year-old Ramsdell comes from the US state of Illinois and completed his doctorate at the University of California in Los Angeles. He is a scientific advisor at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco. The 74-year-old Japanese Shimon Sakaguchi received his doctorate in Kyoto in 1983. He is a professor at the University of Osaka.
Thirty years ago, Tübingen developmental biologist Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard was the first and so far only German woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Medicine. She was honored for her work on the genetic control of early embryonic development.
Two geneticists were also honored last year. US researchers Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered microRNA and thus a previously unknown principle of gene regulation.
First prize went to German bacteriologist
Before this year's prize, a total of 229 people have received the Nobel Prize for Medicine since 1901, including 13 women. The first went to the German bacteriologist Emil Adolf von Behring for the discovery of a treatment for diphtheria.
The Nobel Prize series began with the Medicine Prize. The winners of the physics and chemistry prizes will be named on Tuesday and Wednesday. They will be followed by those for literature and peace. The series of announcements will end next Monday with the so-called Nobel Prize for Economics, donated by the Swedish central bank.
Award ceremony on December 10
The ceremonial presentation of all awards traditionally takes place on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the prize's founder Alfred Nobel (1833-1896). This year's winners of the Right Livelihood Award, commonly referred to as the Alternative Nobel Prize, were announced in Stockholm on October 1.
