Hi, this is Ira Flato, and you're listening to Science Friday.

Today on the show, we'll talk with a winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

She looks at me with this big grin and she says, you just won the Nobel Prize.

And I said, no, I didn't.

And she looked to me and says, I have 200 text messages from your friends who said you did.

This week, scientists found out if they won among the highest honors in science, the Nobel Prize.

And not by opening a sealed envelope, but by answering a long-distance phone call.

The phone rang for three scientists who now share the prize in physiology and medicine,

Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi, Dr. Mary E. Bruncow, and Dr. Fred Ramsdale.

They discovered a key mechanism that regulates the body's immune system, and together, their

discoveries outlined the role of the peripheral immune system, how the immune system knows to

attack just the foreign invaders and not its own tissues and organs.

They found that regulatory T cells work to keep the immune cells in check, but things can go awry

if someone has cancer or an autoimmune disease. Joining me now to talk more about his work is

Nobel winner, Dr. Fred Ramsdale, co-founder and scientific advisor at Sonoma Biotherapeutics.

He's joining us from his home in Montana.

Welcome to Science Friday, and congratulations.

Thank you very much, Ira.

A pleasure to be here.

Nice to have you.

Now, I know that your phone didn't really ring for you, did it?

It did not, no.

...