Nobel Prize 2025 (Physiology or Medicine): The Master Switch of Immunity: How FOXP3 and Tregs Give Your Body an Active "Brake" Against Deadly Autoimmunity
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Nobel Prize 2025 (Physiology or Medicine): The Master Switch of Immunity: How FOXP3 and Tregs Give Your Body an Active "Brake" Against Deadly Autoimmunity
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About this listen
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine honors Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for revealing the body’s “braking system” for immunity—regulatory T cells (Tregs) controlled by the FOXP3 gene. Sakaguchi first identified Tregs in 1995 as a special subset of immune cells that prevent our defenses from mistakenly attacking healthy tissues, explaining why removing them triggers autoimmune diseases in animals. In 2001, Brunkow and Ramsdell discovered FOXP3 as the master switch that makes these cells work, linking mutations in this gene to a lethal immune disorder in mice and its human counterpart, IPEX syndrome. Together, their discoveries showed how the immune system actively maintains self-control and opened new medical strategies: boosting Tregs to treat autoimmune diseases or prevent transplant rejection, and dialing them down in tumors so the immune system can better attack cancer.