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

Three esteemed scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American scientists Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this accolade.

The research identified specialized "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate rogue immune cells capable of attacking the organism.

These findings are now enabling new therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

These laureates will divide a prize fund worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"Their research has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses functions and why we don't all develop severe autoimmune diseases," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.

The team's studies address a fundamental question: How does the defense system defend us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues intact?

The body's protection system uses white blood cells that search for signs of infection, including pathogens and bacteria it has not met before.

Such cells utilize detectors—known as recognition units—that are generated randomly in countless combinations.

This provides the defense network the ability to combat a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably creates immune cells that may target the body.

Protectors of the Immune System

Scientists previously knew that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where immune cells mature.

The latest award honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to disarm other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

It is known that this process malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

The prize committee stated, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and spurred the development of new treatments, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding cancer, regulatory T-cells block the body from attacking the tumor, so studies are focused on reducing their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is no longer under attack. A similar approach could also be useful in minimizing the risks of transplanted organ rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, performed experiments on rodents that had their thymus removed, leading to self-attack conditions.

He showed that introducing defense cells from other mice could stop the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for preventing immune cells from attacking the host.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were investigating an genetic immune disorder in mice and humans that resulted in the discovery of a gene vital for the way regulatory T-cells operate.

"The pioneering work has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," commented a leading physiology specialist.

"The research is a striking illustration of how fundamental biological research can have far-reaching consequences for public health."