The Amazing Record of the Nobel Prize in Immunology – Healthcare Blog
The Amazing Record of the Nobel Prize in Immunology – Healthcare Blog
By matthew holt | Published: 2025-10-27 05:46:00 | Source: The Health Care Blog
By Mike Magee
With the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2025 last week,… American Association of Immunologists (AAI) He made an understandable triumph, saying: “This Nobel Prize demonstrates how important immunology is to medicine and human health. The ability to harness, modulate or suppress immune responses holds promise across a wide range of diseases – from autoimmune diseases to cancer, allergies, infectious diseases and beyond.”
This year’s award went to Mary E. Bronco, Fred Ramsdell, and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi, This could not have come at a better time as our nation’s scientific community, government science leaders, academics, and companies push back against… Vaccine skeptic RFK Jr.
like AAI “Since 1901, Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 27 members of the American Institute of Immunology for their innovations and achievements in immunology and related disciplines,” he proudly exclaims. That number reached 28 with the addition of Dr. Sakaguchi, a distinguished fellow at the American Institute.
The field of immunology and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine have grown side by side over the past century.
Immunity has Latin roots from the word immunity Which was introduced in Roman times to indicate relief from the burden of taxes for deserving citizens by their emperor. Protection against disease is a little more complex than that and offers white blood cells (WBCs) a starring role. These cells are produced in the bone marrow and then divided into cells Fetal thymus gland For instructions on how to attack only invaders, while keeping our cells healthy.
The WBC is regulated in Specialized departments. WBC neutrophils engulf bacteria, fungi, and fungi as immediate primary responders. Monocyte macrophages are an additional first line of defence, consuming and digesting bacteria and damaged cells through a process called phagocytosis. B cells produce specific proteins called antibodies, designed to learn and remember the chemical makeup of invaders or ‘antigen’. It can quickly identify criminals and neutralize targeted bacteria, toxins and viruses. T cells are specifically designed to hunt down viruses hiding within human cells themselves.
The first ever Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to a German scientist, Emil von Bering, Eleven years after he demonstrated “passive immunity.” He was able to isolate toxins or toxins derived from the tetanus and diphtheria microorganisms, inject them into laboratory animals, and subsequently demonstrate that the animals were now “protected” from tetanus and diphtheria infections. These antivenoms, used freely in New York City, where diphtheria It was the chief killer of infants, and soon put an end to this sad epidemic.
The body’s internal defense system began to reveal its secrets in the early twentieth century. Brussels world Jules BordetWhile studying the anthrax bacteria, he was able to identify not only protein antibodies in response to anthrax infection, but also a series of associated proteins. This series of antibodies-binding proteins has enhanced their ability to kill bacteria. In 1919, Bordet won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of a series of “complement” proteins, which when activated help antibodies to “drill holes” through bacterial cell walls and destroy them.
Victories against some pathogens have been elusive. in case polio virus, Which has a tendency to invade motor neurons, especially in children, and cause paralysis, it took remarkable collaboration between the government, academic medical researchers, and community doctors and nurses to ultimately achieve success. The effort included simultaneous testing in children of two very different vaccines.
Current vaccine skeptics, like RFK Jr., argue against historical facts.
One just needs to Examine the charts From the annual incidence of diseases such as diphtheria and polio, before and after the introduction of vaccines, to estimate the significant preservation of life resulting from intentional but safe exposure to killed or attenuated vaccines.
In the same era, scientific theorists such as the UK scientists Niels Jerne. The truth has been proven. But it took three decades for the scientific community to agree. The Nobel Prize he won in 1984 stated: “He confirmed that all types of antibodies have already developed during the fetal stage and that the immune system works through selection.” In 1971, he demonstrated that lymphocytes teach themselves how to recognize body substances present in the thymus gland… An immune reaction arises when an antigen upsets the balance of the system.
By then, Gurney’s white blood cells had been dubbed “B lymphocytes” by an Australian scientist named McFarlane BurnettNobel Prize winner in 1960, who also saw that antibodies were already present in the fetus. These individuals were part of a long tradition of medical science imaginers. For example, Robert Koch He was the main assistant paul erlich, Who imagined Internal works “In his view, cells were surrounded by small spike-like molecular structures, or ‘side chains’, as he called them, and these were responsible for trapping nutrients and other chemicals, pulling them inside the cell.”
The “side chains” were actually antibodies, which are large protein molecules made up of two long chains and two short chains. It was later shown that approximately 80% of the four sequences are identical in all antibodies. The remaining 20% varies, forming unique antigen-binding sites for each antigen. Almost immediately scientists began wondering whether they could reconstruct these large proteins to form them “Monoclonal antibodies.” To fight cancers such as skin cancer.
Imagination sometimes carries the day. But more often than not, straightforward problem solving reveals answers. This was the case when the French scientist said, Jean Doucet Fingerprint description “HLA (human leukocyte antigen).” One question always leads to another. In this case, “Why do HLAs exist?” What was eventually discovered was that some microorganisms (viruses) settle inside human cells and acquire a protective status.
To deal with this problem, humans have specialized white blood cells – called a T cell. But for a T cell to destroy an intracellular virus, it must “recognize and respond” to two messenger signals. First, the virus antigen. Second, a permissive signal tells us that the virus is in a host cell worth preserving. The HLA fingerprint is that signal.
Which brings us back to the recent Nobel Prize she received last week for discoveries the committee described as “fundamental.” But how so? In the 1980s Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi Researchers have demonstrated that humans have a back-up system to prevent false self-attacks – specialized “regulatory T cells” that develop in the thymus gland after birth in the first few weeks of life. Then it took another two decades (in 2001). Dr. Bronco and Dr. Ramsdell Identify the gene (FOXB3) responsible for creating “regulatory T cells”. No gene – no regulatory T cells.
Why is this important? Two reasons:
- It turns out that cancer has a bad habit of surrounding itself with regulatory T cells that protect it from an immune system that might kill it. New drugs may be able to selectively turn off the FOXP3 gene and allow the proper destruction of these cancer cells by normal T cells in the body.
- On the other hand, autoimmune diseases (where the body turns on itself) appear to be fueled by the absence of a functioning FOXP3 gene that supports “regulatory T cells.” New drugs directed at turning on the critical gene and its cells may halt the self-destructive process.
Immunology is an enigmatic, complex, and constantly evolving field of study. The host and its predators (including everything from an invasive microorganism to a rogue cancer cell to a wood splinter left untreated) can be fatal. But to respond, the host must first identify the threat, and activate a specific and effective response, without inadvertently infecting the host itself. As our understanding advances, it has become clear that harnessing the immune system to hunt down circulating cancer cells, suppress fatal rejection of a transplanted organ, or self-modulate to avoid autoimmune destruction is within our reach in the not-too-distant future.
So, to sum it all up, science is a process, and RFK Jr. is not equipped to judge it.
Dr. Mike Magee is a medical historian and regular contributor to THCB. He is an author Code Blue: Inside America’s Medical Industrial Complex. (Grove/2020)
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