The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute on Monday awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Mary E. Brunkow — an alum of the University of Washington — along with Frederick J. Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi “for groundbreaking discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance that prevents the immune system from harming the body.”

Brunkow is a senior program manager at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and received her bachelor’s degree in molecular and cellular biology from the UW in 1983. Brunkow went on to earn her doctoral degree from Princeton University in 1991.

Congratulations, Mary! Read more about Brunkow's award-winning research in UW News.

Bonus: Besides potentially winning the Nobel Prize, there are many benefits to earning a degree in Biology - learn more about our major in this UW News Q&A with Biology Chair, Marti Bosma.