October 7, 2025

The Nobel Prize in Medicine just got a fascinating twist this year! Fred Ramsdell, one of the 2025 winners, is so busy enjoying nature on an 'off the grid' hiking trip that he might not even know he won. His lab in San Francisco, Sonoma Biotherapeutics, told AFP that Ramsdell is truly "living his best life." Ramsdell shares this prestigious prize with Mary Brunkow from Seattle and Shimon Sakaguchi of Osaka University in Japan. Together, they've uncovered the secrets of the immune system's "security guards" — the regulatory T-cells. But here's the spicy part: the Nobel committee can’t reach Ramsdell to break the fantastic news! His friend Jeffrey Bluestone, co-founder of the lab, confessed, "I have been trying to get a hold of him myself. I think he may be backpacking in the backcountry in Idaho." Getting in touch with Mary Brunkow was tricky too, thanks to the nine-hour time difference between the US West Coast and Stockholm where the Nobel committee operates. Finally, they managed to speak with her during the press conference. Thomas Perlmann, Nobel committee secretary-general, said, "I asked them to, if they have a chance, call me back." What’s the big discovery? It's all about "peripheral immune tolerance" — a process that stops the immune system from attacking the body itself. Their work opened a fresh field of research and triggered new treatments now in clinical trials. Shimon Sakaguchi, aged 74, scored the first big win back in 1995 when he found this special class of immune cells that protect against autoimmune diseases. Later, in 2001, Brunkow (born 1961) and Ramsdell (aged 64) made another groundbreaking discovery that pushed this knowledge further. Ramsdell, a senior advisor at Sonoma Biotherapeutics, and Brunkow, now a senior project manager at the Institute for Systems Biology, have both shown how bright minds and balanced lives can go hand in hand. So while Ramsdell hikes in nature, he’s also hiking up the mountain of medical breakthroughs that will benefit millions worldwide. Isn't that a Nobel story worth celebrating?

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Tags: Nobel prize, Medicine, Immune system, Fred ramsdell, Regulatory t-cells, Medical research,