2018 Medicine Nobel goes to US, Japanese researchers
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN - OCTOBER 01: Members of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine Jonas Bergh, Edvard Smith, Anna Wedell and Klas Kaerre announce the winners of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, during a press conference at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden on October 01, 2018. The Nobel Prize for medicine has been awarded to two researchers from the U.S. and Japan for their pioneering work on using the body’s own immune system to fight off cancer. The 9-million-kronor ($1.01 million) prize money will be shared by James Allison of the University of Texas at Austin and Tasuku Honjo of Kyoto University. The Nobel Committee awarded the researchers "for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation," said a committee statement. "The seminal discoveries by the two Laureates constitute a landmark in our fight against cancer," the Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said. Medicine is normally the first of the Nobel Prizes awarded each year. Born in 1948 in Houston, Texas, scientist James P. Allison made breakthrough studies in cancer therapy and is best known for his work on how the T-cell inhibitory molecule (CTLA-4) could lead to enhanced anti-tumor immune responses and tumor rejection. Born in 1942 in Kyoto, Hasuku Tonjo is a Japanese immunologist, best known for his identification of the Programmed Cell Death Protein 1 (PD-1). (Footage by Atila Altuntas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
