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The prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for transformative findings that illuminate how the immune system attacks harmful infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

Three renowned researchers—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this accolade.

Their research uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the immune system that remove malfunctioning defense cells that could harming the organism.

The discoveries are now enabling new treatments for immune disorders and cancer.

These winners will divide a prize fund worth 11 million SEK.

Decisive Findings

"Their work has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses operates and the reason we don't all suffer from severe self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the award panel.

The team's studies explain a core mystery: How does the immune system protect us from numerous infections while leaving our own tissues intact?

The immune system employs white blood cells that scan for signs of disease, even pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

Such defenders employ sensors—known as receptors—that are generated randomly in a vast number of combinations.

This provides the defense network the ability to combat a broad range of threats, but the randomness of the process unavoidably creates white blood cells that can attack the host.

Protectors of the Immune System

Researchers earlier understood that a portion of these harmful defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where white blood cells mature.

The latest Nobel Prize honors the identification of T-reg cells—known as the body's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to disarm other defenders that assault the healthy cells.

We know that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A Nobel panel added, "The findings have established a new field of investigation and accelerated the creation of new therapies, for instance for tumors and immune disorders."

In cancer, T-regs prevent the system from fighting the tumor, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, trials are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is no longer under attack. A similar approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, conducted tests on mice that had their thymus removed, leading to autoimmune disease.

He showed that injecting defense cells from healthy animals could stop the illness—implying there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from attacking the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were investigating an inherited immune disorder in rodents and humans that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor critical for the way T-regs function.

"Their groundbreaking work has uncovered how the immune system is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from mistakenly targeting the body's own tissues," commented a leading biological science specialist.

"The work is a remarkable illustration of how basic biological research can have broad consequences for public health."