SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A UC San Diego alum is among the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his innovative research on the immune system.
According to the university's press release, Fred Ramsdell graduated from UCSD in 1983 with a degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Mary Brunkow and Shimon Sakaguchi were the other two scientists honored with the award. Their research led to new discoveries on previously unrecognized molecular and cellular mechanisms, transforming our understanding of how the body safeguards its immune system by stopping immune cells from attacking the body's own tissues.
Thanks to the research, there's now a range of possible new treatments for debilitating autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, UCSD says.
After his time at UCSD, Ramsdell went on to earn his doctorate at UCLA and has since served in multiple leadership positions in the biotechnology industry; he's currently an advisor at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco.
Ramsdell is the third UCSD Biological Sciences alumnus to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; Bruce Beutler and Susumu Tonegawa, who graduated in 1979 and 1987, respectively, preceded him in this regard.
Additionally, former Biology grad student Venkatraman "Venki" Ramakrishnan won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009, the university says.
Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla says he's proud of Ramsdell's career-defining achievement.
“Congratulations to Fred and his fellow laureates on this historic achievement and on their transformative discoveries that continue to accelerate our understanding of the human immune system," Khosla says. "Alumni such as Fred are shaping science, advancing society and reinforcing the United States’ global leadership in medical research.”
The press release explains that, unlike "central tolerance," one of the safeguards that prevents some of the immune system's T cells from attacking our own healthy tissue, Sakaguchi's research showed the immune system is more complex than originally thought. Sakaguchi discovered a subset of immune cells, known as regulatory T cells, that act as guardians, keeping the body's immune system in check.
According to the Nobel Prize committee, Ramsdell and Brunkow built on this work on "peripheral immune tolerance" by explaining why a strain of mice was especially vulnerable to autoimmune diseases.
"Importantly, they linked a mutation in a mouse gene they named Foxp3 with a human equivalent that, when mutated, causes a genetic disorder characterized by systemic autoimmunity in infants known as IPEX," the release says.
Ananda Goldrath, a UCSD Molecular Biology professor, says Ramsdell's work has led to scientific breakthroughs over the last three decades.
“Fred Ramsdell’s work identifying the Foxp3 gene as essential for preventing autoimmunity in humans and mice laid the groundwork for game-changing discoveries over the last 25 years that have revealed the roles for regulatory T cells in maintaining the balance of immune activity and as novel targets in the treatment of disease,” says Goldrath.
The Nobel Prize committee highlighted these laureates' discoveries as the catalyst for the field of peripheral tolerance, leading to the development of medical treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases, with further potential for more successful organ transplants, the release says.
UCSD says more than 200 related T-cell therapeutics are currently in ongoing clinical trials.
“Their discoveries have been decisive for our understanding of how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases,” said Olle Kämpe, chair of the Nobel Committee, in a statement.
