Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi have won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work that explains how the immune system doesn’t attack the body’s own tissues by mistake. This is a huge step forward that could change how autoimmune diseases are treated and make drugs more effective.
On Monday, October 6, the Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute revealed the winners. This was the first of this year’s Nobel Prize series.
🎖️ A Find That Changed How We Think About Immunity
Olle Kämpe, Chair of the Nobel Committee, remarked that the trio’s groundbreaking work has been “decisive for our understanding of how the immune system works and why we don’t all get serious autoimmune diseases.”
Their research helped us understand the important processes that keep immune cells from attacking healthy organs. This is called immunological tolerance. These new therapies for rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and cancer are based on what we’ve learned.
Responses from the Laureates: From Shock to Humble Joy
Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi, a 74-year-old distinguished professor at Osaka University in Japan, said that winning was a “happy surprise.” He noted during a news conference that he didn’t anticipate the prize to come so quickly, and he added,
“I thought I would have to wait until the research made more progress.”
Sakaguchi got a call from Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba during the press event to congratulate him and ask when the study could be used to cure cancer.
In a hopeful tone, Sakaguchi said,
“Let’s hope we can get to that point in about 20 years.” Science will move forward, and by then, cancer will no longer be feared but will be able to be treated.
📞 Surprises in the US in the Early Morning
At the same time, the news arrived in the early hours for Mary E. Brunkow, 64, a senior program manager at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, 64, a scientific adviser at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco.
Thomas Perlmann, the secretary-general of the committee, said he had to leave voicemails for both of them at first since it was too early in the US.
Later, Brunkow told an Associated Press photographer how she felt:
I spotted a number from Sweden on my phone and thought, “That’s just spam of some kind.”
Ross Colquhoun, her husband, shared the moment and said,
Mary exclaimed, “Don’t be silly!” when I told her she won.
At that time, Ramsdell could not be reached for comment because of the time difference.
🏆 Information about the award and future announcements
The Nobel Prize ceremony will happen on December 10, the day Alfred Nobel died. He was the Swedish inventor of dynamite and set up the rewards in his will. The three of them will split a prize of 11 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million).
The Nobel Prize in Medicine is the first of the 2025 Nobel Prize announcements. The Physics prize will be announced on Tuesday, the Chemistry prize on Wednesday, the Literature prize on Thursday, and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. On October 13, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics will be given out.