A Bay Area-based scientist has been awarded one of the world’s highest honors in medicine, The Nobel Foundation announced early Monday morning.
Frederick Ramsdell, an immunologist and research leader at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in South San Francisco, was named one of three recipients of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Ramsdell, 64, was recognized for groundbreaking discoveries in peripheral immune tolerance, or how the body’s immune system avoids attacking its own healthy tissues.
The Nobel Committee said Ramsdell — born in Dec. 1960 in Elmhurst, Illinois — shares the award with Mary Brunkow from Seattle and Shimon Sakaguchi from Japan for their collective contributions.
“Their discoveries have been decisive for our understanding of how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases,” Olle Kampe, chair of the Nobel Committee, said in a statement on The Nobel Prize website.
The prize amount totals more than $1 billion, according to The Nobel Foundation.
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