On October 6, the Karolinska Institute in Sweden announced that the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine will be awarded to scientists Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries in peripheral immune tolerance.
Alfred Nobel himself was interested in experimental physiology and wanted to create prizes for those who made new advances through scientific discoveries in the laboratory. According to Nobel’s will, the Karolinska Institute, a medical school and research center in Sweden, is responsible for selecting the winners of the Physiology or Medicine Prize.
For over a century, Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine have tirelessly explored research areas covering physiology, genetics, biochemistry, metabolism, and immunology, advancing world medicine and benefiting human society.
In 1901, the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to German physiologist Emil Adolf von Behring. His discovery of serum therapy laid the foundation for advances in diphtheria and tetanus vaccines and was praised as “giving doctors a powerful weapon against disease and death.”
Malaria is one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases. The discovery of artemisinin provided the world with a completely new antimalarial drug. In 2015, Chinese scientist Tu Youyou received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this discovery.
In 1932, Canadian biologist Frederick Bunting, only 32 years old at the time, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of insulin with his collaborator John Macleod, bringing hope to diabetes patients.
Time Is No Barrier to Winning
Throughout the century-long history of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the value of many discoveries or inventions often requires time to become apparent. Some prizes have been awarded many years after the initial discovery or invention.
American cytogeneticist Barbara McClintock discovered gene transposition as early as 1944 but didn’t receive the Nobel Prize for this work until 1983. American virologist Peyton Rous discovered the relationship between tumor viruses and cancer in chickens in 1916, but this discovery wasn’t recognized with a Nobel Prize until 50 years later in 1966.
Nobel laureate Carol Greider also received her prize more than 20 years after her research was published. She noted that the passage of time can be beneficial for medical science, as the significance of an invention or discovery may take many years to become apparent.
In 2011, Canadian immunologist Ralph Steinman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. However, the Nobel Committee was unaware that he had passed away three days before the announcement. The committee subsequently decided to uphold the principle of integrity and awarded him the prize posthumously.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine medal depicts the Genius of Medicine holding an open book and collecting water from a rock to quench the thirst of a sick girl. The medal bears a Latin inscription that roughly translates to: “New discoveries enhance life.”
For over a century, every Nobel Prize-winning achievement in Physiology or Medicine has made outstanding contributions to human health and life.
Recent Nobel Laureates and Their Achievements
2024
American scientists Victor Ambrose and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.
2023
