American scientists Mary Blankku, Fred Ramsdell and Japan’s Satoshima Shimojima were awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
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STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – American scientists Mary Blank, Fred Ramsdell and Sakaguchi Island in Japan won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for their discovery to control the immune system, creating an opening for new autoimmune diseases and cancer treatments.
Marie Warren Herrennius, professor of rheumatism at the Karolinska Institute, said:
Sakaguchi told reporters outside the university’s lab, “I feel that’s an incredible honor.”
T cells: “security guard” for the immune system
The medical recipients will receive the prize money for the Swedish crown and the gold medal presented by the Swedish king, selected by the Nobel Parliament of the Karolinska Institute Medical University.
Brunkow is Senior Program Manager at the Institute of Systems Biology in Seattle, and Ramsdell is a scientific advisor and co-founded at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco. Sakaguchi is a professor at Osaka University in Japan.
“Their discoveries laid the foundation for new research areas and encouraged the development of new treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases, for example,” the award-winning organization said in a statement.
The winners identified so-called regulatory T cells that prevent the immune system security guard from attacking their bodies.
After announcing the winners, Institute’s Thomas Perman said that while certain treatments have yet to achieve market clearance, more than 200 human trials, including regulatory T cells, are ongoing for diseases ranging from cancer types to inflammatory bowel disease.
Perman said he could only break the news for one of the three.
“He sounded incredibly grateful and it was a great honor and he expressed that he was completely taken away by the news,” Perlmann added.
Nobel Season Best Award
The Nobel Prize was founded through the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor and wealthy businessman of dynamite. They have been awarded since 1901 for their remarkable contributions to science, literature and peace, primarily suspended during the World War.
The Economic Award was added later and funded by Riksbank, the Swedish central bank.
The winners are selected by expert committees of various institutions. All awards will be awarded in Stockholm, except for the Peace Prize, which was announced in Oslo.
Past recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine include well-known scientists such as Alexander Fleming, who shared the 1945 award for the discovery of penicillin. In recent years, the award recognizes major breakthroughs, including those that have enabled the development of Covid-19 vaccines.
Last year’s Medical Awards were awarded by scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Lebukun for their crucial roles in the discovery of microRNAs and how multicellular organisms grow and lively, helping to explain how cells specialize in different types.
According to tradition, the award for the award has launched the annual Nobel, perhaps the most prestigious award in science, literature, peace and economics, with the rest being announced over the next few days.
More than a century after their inception, the Nobel Prize has ingrained in tradition. The award culminated in a ceremony attended by Swedish and Norwegian royals, and was held on December 10th – the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel.
(This story has been updated with new information.)
