Here are this year’s Nobel Prize award laureates and how they shifted the world’s perception of immune response

The human body deserves recognition, too.

With the marvelous way our body fights against diseases through the immune system, knowledge about how exactly it does its job is known.

This is until a group of scientists from the University of California (UCLA), the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) of the United States, and the Osaka University of Japan shed light on how the body’s immune system protects itself and detects what and when to attack, which granted them a Nobel Prize.

Scientists Frederick J. Ramsdell, Mary Brunkow, and Shimon Sakaguchi were the recent recipients of the prestigious Nobel Prize award in Physiology and Medicine 2025 for their “discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance”.

Behind the Nobel Prize-worthy study

The study first began in 1995 when Sakaguchi discovered the existence of the immune system’s regulatory T-cells, also called T-regs. 

These cells are a specialized subclass of white blood cells responsible for patrolling or actively checking on other immune cells in the body. Responsible for regulating immune responses, especially when they are flagged as “hyperactive”, they make sure that the body’s response mechanism against diseases is well under control, reducing the risks for autoimmune diseases.

They serve as police for the immune system to ensure that its own cells stay in line and do not attack themselves.

Later on in 2001, Ramsell and Brunkow made a crucial discovery on Foxp3 — the gene responsible for governing the development of cells.

Observations in the gene were made when the two scientists noticed a certain species of mice was particularly vulnerable to fatal autoimmune diseases. Through further research, they were able to trace the culprit back to a mutation in the mice’s Foxp3 gene.

Two years after the discovery, they were able to conclude that Foxp3 is also responsible for the behavior and nature of the body’s T-cells.

Opening the gates of further discovery

“Their discoveries have been decisive for our understanding of how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases,” Olle Kämpe, chair of the Nobel Committee, said.

The scientist’s discoveries are seen to serve as an avenue for more comprehensive studies in peripheral tolerance, introducing the development of more cancer and autoimmune treatments.

After the announcement of winners, it was also said that around 200 trials involving regulatory T-cells are now undergoing, marking a promising future for medicine.

Apart from earning recognition and further amplifying the credibility and impact of the study through the Nobel Prize, the three scientists are also said to share 11 million Swedish kronor, or around 67 million Philippine pesos.

Sakaguchi expressed how, through further research, he believes that there will come a time when cancer will not be seen as a scary disease but rather a curable one.

“I used to think that some sort of reward may be forthcoming if what we have been doing will advance a little further and it will become more beneficial to people in clinical settings,” he said in a press conference in Osaka, Japan.

Defying the field of immunology and opening conversations for more comprehensive medical treatments, the mere discovery of T-cells and the Foxp3 gene paves the way for more groundbreaking discoveries in the medical field.

From laboratories to research studies, the Nobel Prize marks the promising future of medicine and how all it takes is simple recognition to further advance innovation.