Overview

• The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet named the trio joint laureates for discoveries explaining how the body prevents immune self‑attack, with 11 million Swedish kronor to be shared and the award ceremony set for December 10.
• In 1995, Shimon Sakaguchi identified regulatory T cells that restrain harmful immune responses outside the thymus, expanding the concept of immune tolerance beyond central mechanisms.
• Mary E. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell in 2001 traced severe autoimmunity in a mouse strain to mutations in the Foxp3 gene and linked human mutations to the rare IPEX disease.
• By 2003, Sakaguchi showed Foxp3 directs the development of regulatory T cells, launching the field of peripheral tolerance and catalyzing therapies for autoimmune disease, cancer and transplantation now in clinical trials.
• Brunkow is at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Ramsdell advises Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, and Sakaguchi is a distinguished professor at Osaka University; officials said Sakaguchi expressed surprise at the call while Brunkow initially missed it and reacted with disbelief.