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This year's prestigious award in medical science has been awarded for transformative findings that clarify how the body's defense network targets dangerous pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.

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

Their research identified specialized "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells capable of attacking the organism.

The findings are now enabling new therapies for immune disorders and cancer.

The winners will divide a monetary award valued at 11m SEK.

Decisive Findings

"The work has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses operates and the reason we don't all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.

The trio's research address a fundamental mystery: In what way does the immune system protect us from numerous infections while leaving our own tissues intact?

Our immune system employs white blood cells that search for signs of infection, including viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

These defenders utilize sensors—called recognition units—that are produced by chance in countless variations.

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

Security Guards of the Body

Scientists earlier understood that a portion of these harmful defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—where immune cells mature.

This year's award honors the discovery of T-reg cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the system to neutralize other immune cells that attack the healthy cells.

We know that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

The Nobel panel added, "The findings have established a novel area of research and spurred the creation of innovative therapies, for instance for tumors and immune disorders."

Regarding malignancies, T-regs block the system from fighting the tumor, so research are focused on lowering their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, experiments are exploring increasing T-reg cells so the body is no longer being harmed. A comparable approach could also be useful in reducing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, conducted experiments on rodents that had their thymus extracted, leading to autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that introducing defense cells from other animals could stop the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing immune cells from harming the body.

Mary Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an inherited immune disorder in rodents and humans that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor critical for how T-regs function.

"The groundbreaking work has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," said a leading physiology expert.

"This research is a striking example of how fundamental biological research can have broad consequences for public health."