Nobel winner goes off-grid; committee can't trace him
What's the story
Fred Ramsdell, one of the winners of this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine, is currently unreachable. The researcher has been honored along with Mary Brunkow and Shimon Sakaguchi for their groundbreaking work on the immune system. However, Ramsdell's digital detox during an off-the-grid hiking trip has made it impossible for the Nobel committee and his colleagues to get in touch with him.
Colleague's statement
Brunkow was also unreachable earlier
Jeffrey Bluestone, a co-founder of Sonoma Biotherapeutics and a friend of Ramsdell, confirmed the researcher's unavailability. He said he has been trying to reach out to him but thinks that he might be backpacking in Idaho's backcountry. The Nobel committee also faced similar challenges while trying to contact Brunkow as both researchers are based on the US West Coast, which is nine hours behind Stockholm.
Communication hurdles
Committee's attempts to reach the winners
Thomas Perlmann, the Secretary General of the Nobel committee, revealed their attempts to contact the winners. He said he had asked them to call him back if they got a chance. The committee eventually managed to get in touch with Brunkow but not Ramsdell.
Award details
Research has opened up new treatment avenues
The Nobel Prize was awarded to the trio for their research that identified regulatory T-cells as the "security guards" of the immune system. Their work has led to a new field of research and potential medical treatments that are currently being evaluated in clinical trials. The first major discovery was made by Sakaguchi in 1995, while Ramsdell and Brunkow made another key discovery in 2001.