Mary E. Brunkow, genetics program manager at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, has won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She shares the award with fellow scientists Frederick J. Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for their “groundbreaking discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance,” which keeps the immune system in check by avoiding autoimmune responses that can damage healthy tissues. Research in this area has important implications for developing new therapies for cancers and autoimmune diseases, as well as treatments to reduce transplant rejection.
Dr. Brunkow attended the University of Washington for her undergraduate education, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular and cellular biology. She then went on to Princeton University to complete her Ph.D. in molecular biology.
For the past three decades, Dr. Brunkow has conducted research with various biotechnology companies, including Celltech Chrioscience in Bothell, Washington, where she first began her collaboration with Dr. Ramsdell in the 1990s. Together, Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell co-identified a mutation in the gene foxp3. Later, Dr. Sakaguchi built on their discovery by uncovering the role of foxp3 in the development of regulatory T cells, which help the body fight infections.
In 2009, Dr. Brunkow started her current position at the Institute for Systems Biology, where she supports projects regarding family genomics for a variety of disease areas, the systems biology of Lyme disease, sepsis biomarkers, and scientific wellness.