Shimon Sakaguchi, a Japanese scientist who on Monday won this year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his discovery of cells that restrain the body’s immune response, was once considered “dodgy” and even “dangerous” in the field of immunology.
An unwavering conviction in the validity of his research, however, paid off for the Shiga Prefecture native, who sees potential for a wide range of treatments using the discovery of T cells called regulatory T cells.
Sakaguchi, 74, who comes from a long-running family of doctors, originally planned to become a psychiatrist. But he became drawn into immunology while studying medicine at Kyoto University.
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