An image of the Nobel Prize medal being held by an official. (Photo: AP)

2026 Nobel Prize announcements to begin today with Medicine award

The Nobel Prize season returns today, beginning with the award that honours breakthroughs in physiology and medicine.

by · India Today

In Short

  • 2026 Nobel Prize announcements start with Medicine today at 3 pm IST
  • First Medicine Nobel awarded in 1901, 116 prizes till 2025
  • 2025 winners studied immune system regulation, autoimmune diseases

The 2026 Nobel Prize announcements begin today, October 5, with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first of this year's awards, that will recognise work considered to have made an important contribution to humanity.

The medicine award will be announced at the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm at 3:00 pm IST at the earliest.

WATCH THE NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE ANNOUNCEMENT HERE:

WHY IS THE NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE SIGNIFICANT?

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine honours discoveries that have significantly advanced our understanding of the human body, diseases or how they can be prevented or treated.

The award is rooted in the will of Swedish scientist and inventor Alfred Nobel, who set aside part of his fortune for a prize for the person who had made the most important discovery in the field of physiology or medicine.

The first Medicine Nobel was awarded in 1901. Since then, 116 prizes have been awarded to 232 individuals through 2025. The prize can be shared by up to three people.

Like other Nobel Prizes, it comes with a medal, a personal diploma and a cash award. The prizes are formally presented in December, although the laureates are announced in October.

An image of the Nobel Prize medal given to winners. (Photo: AP)

WHO WON THE NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE LAST YEAR?

In 2025, the award went jointly to Mary E Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.

In simple terms, their work helped explain how the immune system is kept from attacking the body's own healthy tissues.

Sakaguchi discovered a type of immune cell called regulatory T cells, which act like a control system, helping prevent harmful immune reactions.

Shimon Sakaguchi, Nobel laureate in medicine, gives his lecture in Stockholm, Sweden. (Photo: AP)

Meanwhile, Brunkow and Ramsdell later identified the role of the FOXP3 gene in these cells and linked it to serious autoimmune disease.

Their discoveries helped establish a major area of research into how the immune system is regulated, with implications for autoimmune diseases, cancer and organ transplantation.

The 2026 Medicine announcement will set the tone for another week of Nobel announcements, with Physics, Chemistry, Literature and Peace to follow, before the Economics prize is announced on October 12.

- Ends