Douglas Flora, Executive Medical Director of Yung Family Cancer Center at St. Elizabeth Healthcare, President-Elect of the Association of Cancer Care Centers, and Editor in Chief of AI in Precision Oncology, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Science Matters: The Immune System’s Security Guards Just Won the Nobel Prize.
More good news to start your week right. This morning, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists who solved one of medicine’s most elegant puzzles: How does your immune system know not to attack you? Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi discovered the body’s “security guards” – specialized cells called regulatory T cells that constantly monitor your immune system, making sure it protects you from invaders without turning on your own organs.
Every single day, your immune system encounters thousands of different microbes trying to invade your body. Many have evolved to look like your own cells as camouflage. And yet, somehow, your body almost always knows the difference between “self” and “threat.” That’s not luck. That’s regulatory T cells doing their job. What makes this discovery even more remarkable is the journey. In 1995, Shimon Sakaguchi was swimming against the scientific consensus when he first identified these cells. Most researchers believed immune tolerance was simpler- that dangerous immune cells were just eliminated early on.
Sakaguchi proved the system was far more sophisticated. Then in 2001, Brunkow and Ramsdell discovered the Foxp3 gene – the master switch that controls these regulatory cells. When this gene mutates, the immune system loses its brakes, leading to severe autoimmune diseases. Two years later, Sakaguchi connected the dots, showing that Foxp3 governs the very cells he’d discovered in 1995. This isn’t just elegant science. These discoveries are already transforming treatment for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and transplant rejection.
Clinical trials are underway right now, built on this foundation. But there’s something else here worth celebrating – the power of scientific persistence. Sakaguchi challenged conventional wisdom and kept going. Brunkow and Ramsdell followed the data in an unexpected direction. And together, their work created an entirely new field of medicine. In a world that often feels divided and chaotic, this is a reminder that brilliant people are still solving impossible problems. They’re working in labs across Seattle, San Francisco, and Osaka, driven by curiosity and the belief that we can understand – and improve – the human condition.
Congratulations to this year’s laureates. Your discoveries are protecting millions of people you’ll never meet, and your persistence is an inspiration to anyone trying to solve hard problems.”
2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Peripheral Immune Tolerance, FOXP3, and the Future of Immunotherapy 
Read more posts featuring Douglas Flora on OncoDaily.