Nobel medicine prize awarded to scientists for immune system discovery
Pioneering immune research wins Nobel medicine prize
- Mary E Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi have been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their significant discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.
- Their pioneering work unravelled an additional mechanism by which the body keeps the immune system in check, preventing autoimmune diseases.
- Professor Sakaguchi discovered regulatory T cells (T-regs) in 1995, and Ms Brunkow and Mr Ramsdell identified a crucial mutation in the Foxp3 gene in 2001.
- Sakaguchi later linked these findings, demonstrating that the Foxp3 gene controls the development of T-regs, which act as 'security guards' to curb overreactive T cells.
- These discoveries have significantly advanced the understanding of immune system function and opened new avenues for developing treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer.