ISB News

In an interview with NPR’s Here & Now, Dr. Mary Brunkow reflects on the scurfy mouse, finding FOXP3, and the clinical promise of T regs – explained for a general audience in a concise, ~6-minute segment with host Scott Tong.

In this ~20-minute interview, KUOW’s Soundside host Gabriel Spitzer talks with Nobel laureate Mary Brunkow about the “scurfy” mouse, discovering FOXP3, and how her work on immune tolerance is reshaping treatments for autoimmune disease and cancer

Chemical & Engineering News spotlights the Nobel-driven science behind regulatory T cells (Tregs) and how the discovery of FOXP3 helped spark a wave of biotech startups tackling autoimmune diseases and cancer.

A friendly, plain-English explainer of the immune system’s “peacekeepers” – regulatory T cells – tracing how FOXP3 flips them on, how they prevent self-attack, and why that science landed Mary Brunkow and colleagues on Nobel morning.

Before dawn knocks and “spam” calls turn real, Mary Brunkow steps into the spotlight – reflecting on the discovery of regulatory T cells that reshaped care for autoimmune disease, cancer, and transplants, from her Darwin Molecular days to ISB today.

This story follows the Nobel spotlight to ask the bigger question: can the immune system’s “peacekeeper” cells – regulatory T cells – be engineered to actually tame autoimmune disease? A measured look at where the trials stand now (think rheumatoid arthritis and transplant tolerance) and what hurdles remain.