Nobel Prizes in Microbiology and Immunology: Complete List (1901–2025)
A complete, updated list of Nobel Prizes awarded for microbiology and immunology, from Emil von Behring (1901) to regulatory T cells (2025), with each laureate's discovery.
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It is of great interest to all microbiology/biomedical students to know about microbiologists and their contribution for which they received Nobel prize. The Nobel Prize is the highest honor that a scientist can receive.
If we see the list of Nobel prize winners since the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded in 1901, we can find many microbiologists receiving this Nobel Prize.
Figure: Nobel Prize Shield
In this article, we are looking back and seeing microbiologists who have won a Nobel Prize. Some of the people who have won Nobel prize in the field of microbiology or immunology, may not be a microbiologist but maybe a physician or biochemist, etc who have contributed in this field.
The list below covers Nobel Prizes awarded for work in microbiology, immunology, and closely related molecular biology, from the first prize in 1901 through 2025. It traces the progress of these fields across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Figure: Kary B Mullis who won Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993 for inventing PCR
Not every laureate was a microbiologist by training; many were physicians, biochemists, or geneticists whose work shaped the field. Most prizes listed are in Physiology or Medicine; a few Chemistry prizes central to microbiology (such as PCR and DNA sequencing) are included and labeled.
Complete list of Nobel Prizes in microbiology and immunology (1901–2025)
| Year | Laureate(s) | Prize | Discovery / contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1901 | Emil Adolf von Behring | Medicine | Serum (antitoxin) therapy, especially against diphtheria |
| 1902 | Ronald Ross | Medicine | Discovered the life cycle of the malaria parasite in the mosquito |
| 1905 | Robert Koch | Medicine | Investigations and discoveries on tuberculosis |
| 1907 | Alphonse Laveran | Medicine | Discovered that protozoan parasites cause malaria |
| 1908 | Ilya Mechnikov; Paul Ehrlich | Medicine | Work on immunity; phagocytosis (Mechnikov) and humoral immunity (Ehrlich) |
| 1912 | Alexis Carrel | Medicine | Vascular suture and transplantation of blood vessels and organs |
| 1913 | Charles Richet | Medicine | Discovered anaphylaxis |
| 1919 | Jules Bordet | Medicine | Discoveries relating to immunity; complement-mediated bacteriolysis |
| 1927 | Julius Wagner-Jauregg | Medicine | Malaria inoculation (malariotherapy) to treat late-stage neurosyphilis |
| 1928 | Charles Nicolle | Medicine | Showed that epidemic typhus is transmitted by the body louse |
| 1930 | Karl Landsteiner | Medicine | Discovered the human ABO blood groups |
| 1939 | Gerhard Domagk | Medicine | Discovered the antibacterial effect of prontosil (sulfa drugs) |
| 1945 | Alexander Fleming; Ernst Chain; Howard Florey | Medicine | Discovered penicillin and its curative effect |
| 1951 | Max Theiler | Medicine | Developed the yellow fever vaccine |
| 1952 | Selman Waksman | Medicine | Discovered streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis |
| 1954 | John Enders; Thomas Weller; Frederick Robbins | Medicine | Grew poliovirus in tissue culture, enabling the polio vaccine |
| 1958 | George Beadle; Edward Tatum; Joshua Lederberg | Medicine | Genes regulate chemical events (Beadle, Tatum); genetic recombination in bacteria (Lederberg) |
| 1959 | Severo Ochoa; Arthur Kornberg | Medicine | Mechanisms of DNA and RNA synthesis |
| 1960 | Frank Macfarlane Burnet; Peter Medawar | Medicine | Discovered acquired immunological tolerance |
| 1962 | Francis Crick; James Watson; Maurice Wilkins | Medicine | Molecular structure of DNA (the double helix) |
| 1965 | François Jacob; André Lwoff; Jacques Monod | Medicine | Genetic control of enzyme synthesis (the operon model) |
| 1966 | Peyton Rous; Charles Huggins | Medicine | Discovered that a virus can cause tumors (Rous sarcoma virus) |
| 1969 | Max Delbrück; Alfred Hershey; Salvador Luria | Medicine | Genetic structure and replication of bacteriophages |
| 1972 | Gerald Edelman; Rodney Porter | Medicine | Determined the chemical structure of antibodies |
| 1975 | David Baltimore; Howard Temin; Renato Dulbecco | Medicine | Discovered reverse transcriptase; interaction of tumor viruses with the cell's genetic material |
| 1976 | Baruch Blumberg; D. Carleton Gajdusek | Medicine | Hepatitis B antigen (Blumberg); kuru as a transmissible "unconventional virus," later understood as prion disease (Gajdusek) |
| 1977 | Rosalyn Yalow; Roger Guillemin; Andrew Schally | Medicine | Radioimmunoassay (Yalow); peptide hormones of the brain (Guillemin, Schally) |
| 1978 | Werner Arber; Daniel Nathans; Hamilton Smith | Medicine | Discovered restriction enzymes and their use in molecular genetics |
| 1980 | Baruj Benacerraf; Jean Dausset; George Snell | Medicine | Genetically determined cell-surface structures (MHC) that regulate immune reactions |
| 1980 | Paul Berg; Walter Gilbert; Frederick Sanger | Chemistry | Recombinant DNA (Berg); methods to sequence DNA (Gilbert, Sanger) |
| 1983 | Barbara McClintock | Medicine | Discovered mobile genetic elements (transposons) |
| 1984 | Niels Jerne; Georges Köhler; César Milstein | Medicine | Theories on the immune system; monoclonal antibody production (hybridoma technique) |
| 1987 | Susumu Tonegawa | Medicine | Discovered the genetic mechanism generating antibody diversity |
| 1988 | Johann Deisenhofer; Robert Huber; Hartmut Michel | Chemistry | Structure of the bacterial photosynthetic reaction center |
| 1989 | J. Michael Bishop; Harold Varmus | Medicine | Discovered the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes (proto-oncogenes) |
| 1993 | Kary Mullis; Michael Smith | Chemistry | Invented PCR (Mullis); site-directed mutagenesis (Smith) |
| 1996 | Peter Doherty; Rolf Zinkernagel | Medicine | How the immune system recognizes virus-infected cells (MHC restriction) |
| 1997 | Stanley Prusiner | Medicine | Discovered prions, infectious agents made only of protein |
| 2005 | Barry Marshall; Robin Warren | Medicine | Discovered Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer |
| 2008 | Harald zur Hausen; Françoise Barré-Sinoussi; Luc Montagnier | Medicine | HPV causes cervical cancer (zur Hausen); discovery of HIV (Barré-Sinoussi, Montagnier) |
| 2011 | Bruce Beutler; Jules Hoffmann; Ralph Steinman | Medicine | Activation of innate immunity (Beutler, Hoffmann); dendritic cells in adaptive immunity (Steinman) |
| 2015 | William Campbell; Satoshi Ōmura; Tu Youyou | Medicine | Therapies against roundworm parasites (Campbell, Ōmura); artemisinin for malaria (Tu) |
| 2018 | James Allison; Tasuku Honjo | Medicine | Cancer immunotherapy by inhibiting immune checkpoints (CTLA-4, PD-1) |
| 2020 | Harvey Alter; Michael Houghton; Charles Rice | Medicine | Discovery of the hepatitis C virus |
| 2023 | Katalin Karikó; Drew Weissman | Medicine | Nucleoside base modifications enabling effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 |
| 2024 | Victor Ambros; Gary Ruvkun | Medicine | Discovered microRNA and its role in gene regulation |
| 2025 | Mary Brunkow; Fred Ramsdell; Shimon Sakaguchi | Medicine | Discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance (regulatory T cells and FOXP3) |
Figure: 2015 Nobel prize in medicine was conferred one half jointly to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura “for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites” and the other half to Tu Youyou “for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria.”
Figure: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2018) was jointly awarded to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation. James P. Allison found that T-cell proteinCTLA-4 functions as a brake on T cells. Tasuku Honjo discovered PD-1, another protein expressed on the surface of T-cells. He found that PD-1 similar to CTLA-4, functions as a T-cell brake, but operates by a different mechanism
Figure: Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine-2020 was given for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus
Frequently Asked Questions
Who discovered the life cycle of the malaria parasite, and won a Nobel Prize?
Who discovered the life cycle of the malaria parasite, and won a Nobel Prize?
Sir Ronald Ross, awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for working out the life cycle of the malaria parasite in the mosquito. Alphonse Laveran, who first identified the malaria parasite itself, received the prize in 1907.
Who won the first Nobel Prize related to microbiology?
Who won the first Nobel Prize related to microbiology?
Emil von Behring won the first-ever Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in 1901, for developing serum (antitoxin) therapy against diphtheria.
What did Robert Koch win the Nobel Prize for?
What did Robert Koch win the Nobel Prize for?
Robert Koch received the 1905 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his investigations and discoveries on tuberculosis, including identifying its causative bacterium.
Who won the Nobel Prize for discovering prions?
Who won the Nobel Prize for discovering prions?
Stanley Prusiner, in 1997, for discovering prions, infectious agents made only of protein with no nucleic acid. (Earlier, in 1976, Carleton Gajdusek was recognized for showing that kuru was transmissible, work later understood in terms of prions.)
Who is considered the father of microbiology?
Who is considered the father of microbiology?
The title is most often given to Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who first observed microorganisms, and sometimes to Louis Pasteur or Robert Koch as founders of modern microbiology. Note that van Leeuwenhoek and Pasteur predate the Nobel Prize (first awarded in 1901), so they are not on this list; Koch is (1905).
What is the most recent Nobel Prize in immunology?
What is the most recent Nobel Prize in immunology?
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded to Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance, including regulatory T cells and the FOXP3 gene.
Which Nobel Prizes in this field were awarded in Chemistry rather than Medicine?
Which Nobel Prizes in this field were awarded in Chemistry rather than Medicine?
Several central microbiology tools were recognized in Chemistry: PCR and site-directed mutagenesis (1993), recombinant DNA and DNA sequencing (1980), and the structure of the bacterial photosynthetic reaction center (1988).
Did any Nobel Prizes recognize work on COVID-19?
Did any Nobel Prizes recognize work on COVID-19?
Yes. The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for the nucleoside base modifications that made effective mRNA COVID-19 vaccines possible.
References
- The Nobel Prize. All Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine. Nobel Prize Outreach. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-laureates-in-physiology-or-medicine/
- The Nobel Prize. All Nobel Prizes in Chemistry. Nobel Prize Outreach. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-laureates-in-chemistry/
- Individual prize summaries and press releases, NobelPrize.org
Tankeshwar Acharya, MSc (Medical Microbiology)
Tankeshwar Acharya is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at Patan Academy of Health Sciences (PAHS), Nepal, where he has been teaching and practicing clinical microbiology for over 14 years. He is the founder of Microbe Online, one of the leading free microbiology education resources on the web, covering bacteriology, mycology, parasitology, immunology, and clinical laboratory diagnostics written from direct experience in both the classroom and the diagnostic laboratory.
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