I am posting this because of the ongoing discussio
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Posted On: 10/06/2025 10:22:38 AM
I am posting this because of the ongoing discussions by ohm and others about T-regs and the immune system. Here are some excerpts from the PR linked below.
Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.
Brunkow, 64, is a senior program manager at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. Ramsdell, 64, is a scientific adviser for Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco. Sakaguchi, 74, is a distinguished professor at the Immunology Frontier Research Center at Osaka University in Japan.
The immune system has many overlapping systems to detect and fight bacteria, viruses and other intruders. Key immune warriors such as T cells get trained on how to spot bad actors. If some instead go awry in a way that might trigger autoimmune diseases, they’re supposed to be eliminated in the thymus — a process called central tolerance.
The Nobel winners unraveled an additional way the body keeps the system in check.
The Nobel Committee said it started with Sakaguchi’s discovery in 1995 of a previously unknown T cell subtype now known as regulatory T cells or T-regs. Then in 2001, Brunkow and Ramsdell discovered a culprit mutation in a gene named Foxp3, a gene that also plays a role in a rare human autoimmune disease.
Every day, our immune system protects us from thousands of different microbes trying to invade our bodies. These all have different appearances, and many have developed similarities with human cells as a form of camouflage. So how does the immune system determine what it should attack and what it should defend?
Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025 for their fundamental discoveries relating to peripheral immune tolerance. The laureates identified the immune system’s security guards, regulatory T cells, which prevent immune cells from attacking our own body.
The laureates’ discoveries launched the field of peripheral tolerance, spurring the development of medical treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases. This may also lead to more successful transplantations. Several of these treatments are now undergoing clinical trials.
“Their discoveries have been decisive for our understanding of how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases,” says Olle Kämpe, chair of the Nobel Committee.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/20...s-release/
Note at the bottom of the PR there are 7 illustrations. This one shows how T-regs protect us.
https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2025/10/po...igure7.jpg
Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.
Brunkow, 64, is a senior program manager at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. Ramsdell, 64, is a scientific adviser for Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco. Sakaguchi, 74, is a distinguished professor at the Immunology Frontier Research Center at Osaka University in Japan.
The immune system has many overlapping systems to detect and fight bacteria, viruses and other intruders. Key immune warriors such as T cells get trained on how to spot bad actors. If some instead go awry in a way that might trigger autoimmune diseases, they’re supposed to be eliminated in the thymus — a process called central tolerance.
The Nobel winners unraveled an additional way the body keeps the system in check.
The Nobel Committee said it started with Sakaguchi’s discovery in 1995 of a previously unknown T cell subtype now known as regulatory T cells or T-regs. Then in 2001, Brunkow and Ramsdell discovered a culprit mutation in a gene named Foxp3, a gene that also plays a role in a rare human autoimmune disease.
Every day, our immune system protects us from thousands of different microbes trying to invade our bodies. These all have different appearances, and many have developed similarities with human cells as a form of camouflage. So how does the immune system determine what it should attack and what it should defend?
Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025 for their fundamental discoveries relating to peripheral immune tolerance. The laureates identified the immune system’s security guards, regulatory T cells, which prevent immune cells from attacking our own body.
The laureates’ discoveries launched the field of peripheral tolerance, spurring the development of medical treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases. This may also lead to more successful transplantations. Several of these treatments are now undergoing clinical trials.
“Their discoveries have been decisive for our understanding of how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases,” says Olle Kämpe, chair of the Nobel Committee.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/20...s-release/
Note at the bottom of the PR there are 7 illustrations. This one shows how T-regs protect us.
https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2025/10/po...igure7.jpg
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