With a shared 2025 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine on Monday for Mary Brunkow of the Seattle-based Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) and Fred Ramsdell of Sonoma Biotherapeutics, Seattle now has three Nobel winners in the past two years.
David Baker of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington won a share of the 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Ken Horenstein, founder and general partner at Pack Ventures, a venture capital fund that invests in startups with key connections to the University of Washington, cheered the news on LinkedIn:
“Seattle biotech is on fire with back to back winners of the Nobel Prize!!” he wrote, with a fire emoji to drive home his hot take.
Here’s more on the winners:
- Brunkow and Ramsdell shared the prize with for Shimon Sakaguchi of Osaka University in Japan for their research on the immune cells that prevent the human body from attacking itself. Research done by the trio solidified the role of regulatory T cells, or Treg cells, and launched a new field in peripheral tolerance research, which is the study of how the body makes the distinction between dangerous invaders and its own cells. Work in this area has led to therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases.
- Baker, a biochemist at UW’s IPD, was honored last year for more than two decades of discoveries about the molecular structure of proteins — discoveries that have led to new medical therapies, new materials and new startups. Baker holds more than 100 patents and has co-founded 21 biotech companies — some of which have already been acquired.
A wide range of startups, larger companies and research institutions contribute to the Seattle region’s dynamic biotech scene.
In January, Tune Therapeutics, a company with headquarters in Seattle and Durham, N.C., raised $175 million for its technology called epigenetic editing to control gene expression without modifying the DNA sequence itself. Callio Therapeutics, a cancer treatment startup with headquarters in Seattle and Singapore, raised $187 million in March. And Seattle-based startup Curevo raised $110 million to develop a vaccine against shingles.
Life Science Washington reported that the sector attracted $2.65 billion in 2024 over 37 deals involving state life sciences companies ranging from pre-seed investment to IPO.
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- Seattle’s new frontier: Biotech, AI and the race to revolutionize medicine
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