SF researcher on remote camping trip had no idea for hours he won Nobel Prize

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- After missing about 150 text messages and then calls and emails, Dr. Fred Ramsdell finally got word that he and two of his colleagues were awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Dr. Ramsdell works with Sonoma Biotherapeutics, a South San Francisco company.

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But he was completely off the grid camping at 8,000 feet in Yellowstone when the news came out. He talked to ABC7 News from his hotel room after he reentered civilization.

"I learned about this literally about three hours ago," Dr. Ramsdell said. "It's a humbling experience, to be sure...It's surreal, it's surprising."

Dr. Ramsdell and his two co-winners, Dr. Mary Brunkow in Seattle and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi in Japan, were recognized for their groundbreaking work on the human immune system.

"Being able to take your own immune system at some level, reprogram it based on what we now know, to go reset itself so that you don't react to your own tissues," Dr. Ramsdell said.

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Experts say the findings are critical to understanding autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus.

"What these three folks did was to identify both the cell and a gene that's turned on in those cells, which really gives these cells the superpower to go around as sentinels and shut it down," immunologist and diabetes expert Mark Anderson said. "The idea would be we could use these cells in this gene to go in and shut down just that part, the unwanted autoimmune response, but leave all the good parts of the immune system behind."

"It's exciting for us. It's exciting for Fred. It's exciting. I hope for the patients and the people who may ultimately benefit from these discoveries," Sonoma Biotherapeutics President and CEO Jeff Bluestone said.

Friends, colleagues, and fellow scientists applaud Dr. Ramsdell.

"Oh congrats, so well deserved," Anderson said. "I couldn't think, I couldn't think of a more humble person to win such an enormous prize and make such an amazing discovery. And the world will now know."