The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists, Shimon Sakaguchi, Mary Brunkow, and Fred Ramsdell, for their work in studying the balance of our immune systems. That balance in immunity cells is between ferociously attacking the body's invaders and not attacking the body's own cells. We have trouble fighting our own cancers because the immune system identifies cancer as our own cells -which they are, but we'd like to change that. Organ transplants would work better if we could stop attacks from the immune system, but not destroy our immunity completely. And that balance sometimes fails. Autoimmune disorders like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis occur when the immune system identifies our own cells as invaders and attacks them.
Our bodies attempt to sort out immune cells that will attack our own bodies when they are first generated, and then other cells police them after they are released into the system, but it doesn't always work perfectly. The Nobel-winning scientists discovered the genes that regulate these self-defense systems within our immune systems. Read about what they've found, and how it could change the world, at the Conversation. -via Geeks Are Sexy
(Image credit: Gwilz)