The Nobel Committee selected Mary E. Brunkow recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine
- Feb 2
- 1 min read
Mary E. Brunkow, 64, an alumna of St. Mary's Academy, is one of three research scientists to receive the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Her Nobel Laureate colleagues include Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi.
"Their discoveries have been decisive for our understanding of how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases," said Olle Kämpe, chair of the Nobel Committee.
In announcing the prize, the committee wrote:
"The body's powerful immune system must be regulated, or it may attach our own organs. Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi made groundbreaking discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance that prevents the immune system from harming the body. Their discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of research and spurred the development of new treatments, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases."
Brunkow, 64, graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in 1979 and earned a doctorate in molecular biology from Princeton University. She is a senior program manager at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. Laureates Brunkow, Ramsdell and Sakaguchi will share the 11 million Swedish kronor prize, (nearly $1.2 million).
