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This year's prestigious award in medical science was granted for transformative discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network attacks harmful pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.

A trio of renowned scientists—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and American scientists Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this honor.

Their research identified specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells that could harming the body.

The discoveries are now enabling innovative therapies for immune disorders and malignancies.

These winners will share a prize fund valued at 11 million Swedish kronor.

Crucial Discoveries

"Their research has been essential for understanding how the immune system functions and why we don't all suffer from severe self-attack conditions," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.

This trio's research address a fundamental question: In what way does the immune system defend us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues intact?

Our immune system uses white blood cells that search for indicators of disease, even viruses and germs it has not met before.

Such cells employ sensors—called recognition units—that are produced randomly in a vast number of combinations.

That gives the defense network the ability to combat a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably produces immune cells that may attack the body.

Protectors of the Body

Scientists earlier knew that a portion of these problematic defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where immune cells mature.

The latest Nobel Prize recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to neutralize other defenders that attack the body's own tissues.

We know that this mechanism malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

A prize committee stated, "The discoveries have established a new field of research and accelerated the creation of innovative treatments, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

In malignancies, regulatory T-cells block the body from fighting the tumor, so studies are focused on reducing their quantity.

In self-attack disorders, trials are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the body is not under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in reducing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Innovative Experiments

Prof Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted tests on rodents that had their thymus removed, causing autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that injecting defense cells from healthy mice could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a system for preventing immune cells from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited immune disorder in mice and humans that led to the discovery of a genetic factor critical for how regulatory T-cells operate.

"The groundbreaking research has revealed how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," commented a leading biological science expert.

"The research is a remarkable example of how fundamental biological research can have far-reaching consequences for human health."