Nobel Prize for medicine awarded to immune system researchers

For their research into how the human immune system functions, Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi were awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

The trio will receive the award in December for “their groundbreaking discoveries regarding peripheral immune tolerance, which prevents the immune system from harming the body,” according to the Swedish Karolinska Institute’s announcement on Monday.

According to Marie Wahren-Herlenius, a professor of rheumatology at the Karolinska Institute, the research “relates to how we keep our immune system under control so we can fight any microbes imaginable while avoiding autoimmune disease.”

Brunkow and Ramsdell, both 64, of the United States, and Sakaguchi, 74, of Japan, will each receive 11 million Swedish kronor ($1.17 million).

They will also receive gold medals from the Swedish king.

The prize-awarding organization stated in a statement that “their discoveries have laid the groundwork for a new field of research and spurred the development of new treatments, such as cancer and autoimmune diseases.”

The trio’s work, according to Olle Kampe, the Nobel Committee’s chair, has “decisively improved our understanding of how the immune system functions.”

Their collaboration dates back to 1995, when Sakaguchi made the initial breakthrough. Before Sakaguchi connected all of their work two years later, Brunkow and Ramsdell made a second breakthrough in 2001.

The Nobel Committee’s Secretary-General, Thomas Perlmann, claimed he had left voicemails for Brunkow and Ramsdell and that he had phoned Sakaguchi on Monday.

At his lab, I spoke with [Sakaguchi], and he sounded incredibly appreciative and said it was a great honor. Perlmann claimed that the news had taken him by surprise.

The annual Nobel Prizes, one of the most prestigious prizes in science, literature, peace, and economics, are kicked off with the medicine prize. In the coming days, the winners of the remaining prizes will be revealed.

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has repeatedly argued that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize after claiming to have stopped seven wars since taking office at the start of the year.