UW alum Mary Brunkow, ’83, won the Nobel Prize in Medicine this morning.This photo was taken while she was on the phone with the Nobel Committee in Sweden. Mary said she initially missed the call because a strange number popped up on her phone — she thought it might be spam

Mary graduated from the UW with a bachelor’s degree in Molecular & Cellular Biology and currently works at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle

She shares the award with Fred Ramsdell & Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries on how the human immune system fights disease without mistakenly attacking the body’s own cells. Their research is helping scientists develop new therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases.

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