The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded for the discovery of the mechanisms of immune tolerance

Immunologists Mary Brancow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi have won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of peripheral immune tolerance. This was reported by , the official account of the Nobel Prize in the social network X.

Their research has explained how the body avoids attacks on its own cells and why permanent autoimmune reactions do not develop.

Previously, scientists believed that immune cells learn through the process of central immune tolerance. However, new discoveries have shown that the immune system is more complex than expected and requires additional mechanisms to protect its own cells.

The human immune system fights thousands of viruses, bacteria, and other microbes every day. It is able to distinguish between pathogens and the body's own cells, even when microbes disguise themselves as human cells.