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Mary E. Brunkow

Mary E. Brunkow

Senior Program Manager, Institute for Systems Biology

Appears in 1 story

Notable Quotes

The scurfy mouse discovery was about following the science wherever it led—even when it took us to a gene we didn't expect to find.

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The 2025 Nobel prizes: six days that crowned science's breakthrough year

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Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine 2025

The Nobel Assembly kicked off October 2025 by awarding the Medicine Prize to three scientists who discovered the immune system's off-switch—regulatory T cells controlled by the Foxp3 gene. Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell identified the gene in 2001 while studying scurfy mice that died from autoimmune storms. Shimon Sakaguchi had already discovered the cells themselves in 1995. Together, their work explains why our immune systems don't destroy us, and opened the door to treatments for everything from diabetes to lupus.

Updated Jan 7