Nobel Prize 2026 kicks off: Who will win the medicine award?
The 2026 Nobel Prize season begins with the physiology or medicine award, announced at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute.
Today, 5 October, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, will announce the winner of the season's first Nobel Prize: the Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Nominees for this award are always kept secret, and the Nobel committee keeps its cards close to its chest until the announcement, expected no earlier than 11:10 CEST.
Last year's prize was shared by two US-based scientists, Mary E Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell, and their Japanese peer Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries in peripheral immune tolerance.
The three were awarded for "their groundbreaking discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance that prevents the immune system from harming the body," the institute said in a statement. Experts called the findings critical to understanding autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
The honour has been awarded 116 times to 232 laureates between 1901 and 2025.
Monday's medicine prize is followed by the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday.
After Friday’s peace prize is awarded, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced on 12 October.
The prize this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about €1.09 million), whether for an individual, a small group of laureates, or an organisation.
The award ceremony will be held on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, a wealthy Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite who founded the prizes. He died in 1896.
