🔗 Share this article

The prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was granted for transformative findings that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks dangerous pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.

Three renowned scientists—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and US scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

The research identified unique "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate rogue immune cells capable of harming the body.

These findings are now paving the way for new treatments for immune disorders and cancer.

These laureates will share a prize fund worth 11m Swedish kronor.

Crucial Discoveries

"The work has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses operates and the reason we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.

The trio's research explain a core mystery: In what way does the defense system protect us from numerous invaders while leaving our healthy cells unharmed?

Our body's protection system uses immune cells that search for indicators of infection, including pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

These defenders utilize detectors—called receptors—that are produced randomly in a vast number of combinations.

That gives the immune system the ability to combat a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the process inevitably produces white blood cells that may attack the host.

Protectors of the Immune System

Researchers previously knew that some of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—where white blood cells develop.

This year's Nobel Prize honors the identification of T-reg cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the system to neutralize any immune cells that attack the body's own tissues.

It is known that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

The Nobel panel added, "The discoveries have established a new field of research and spurred the development of new treatments, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the system from fighting the tumor, so research are aimed at reducing their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing increasing T-reg cells so the body is not under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, performed tests on rodents that had their thymus extracted, leading to autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that introducing defense cells from healthy animals could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a system for preventing defenders from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and people that resulted in the identification of a gene vital for the way T-regs function.

"The pioneering research has revealed how the body's defenses is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," commented a leading biological science expert.

"This research is a striking illustration of how fundamental physiological research can have broad consequences for human health."