Medicine Nobel to trio who identified immune system's 'security guards'

A US-Japanese trio on Monday won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for research into how the immune system is kept in check by identifying its "security guards", the Nobel jury said.

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(L-R) The portraits of Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi are displayed during a press conference where the winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine are announced at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, on Monday.

(AFP)

The discoveries by Mary E. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell of the United States and Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi have been decisive for understanding how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases.

Sakaguchi, a professor at the Immunology Frontier Research Centre in Osaka, told Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio: “It’s an honour for me. I’m looking forward to visiting Stockholm in December” to receive the award in person.

The Nobel committee was however unable to reach the two US-based laureates to break the news to them in person.

“If you hear this, call me,” the head of the Nobel Assembly, Thomas Perlmann, joked at the press conference announcing the winners. The three won the prize for research that identified the immune system’s “security guards”, called regulatory T-cells.