How Nobel laureates uncovered the body’s immune watchdogs

For the Nobel laureates, the journey began in the 1980s with Shakaguchi’s discovery, and was furthered in the 1990s-2000s by Brunkow and Ramsdell’s work

Our immune system is so powerful that it can sometimes attack parts of our body itself, leading to autoimmune disorders. Today, it is well known that the body has a regulatory mechanism, called peripheral immune tolerance, that prevents the immune system from going overboard, but it took a long journey spanning decades before scientists deciphered how that works.

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

The Nobel Prize for Medicine, announced on Monday, honours three scientists who made pioneering discoveries along that journey. Shimon Shakaguchi, currently with