Day 16 · 坂口志文 Shimon Sakaguchi · 2025 年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖
NOBEL LAUREATE · 每日一篇
学生版· Student Edition
一、导语
From would-be sculptor to immune-system pioneer — how a dropped art dream rewrote the rules of tolerance.
从「准雕塑家」到免疫学先驱——一个放弃的艺术梦，如何改写了耐受的规则。
二、英文成长故事· The Story
Shimon Sakaguchi, born in 1951 in Nagahama, Japan, once dreamed of becoming an artist. In junior high he poured himself into drawing and sculpture, but gradually realised he lacked the talent. He entered medical school instead, a choice shaped by a relative who ran a local clinic and by physician-writers who inspired him. At university he first eyed psychiatry, yet found it too close to the humanities; it was a single immunology lecture — on how the body "recognises self and excludes non-self" — that truly lit his path.
1951 年生于日本长滨的坂口志文，曾梦想成为艺术家。初中时他沉迷绘画与雕塑，却渐渐意识到自己天赋不足。他转而学医——这一选择受开办本地诊所的亲戚影响，也受那些身为作家的医生所激励。在大学里，他起初倾心精神科，却觉其过于人文学科；真正点亮他道路的，是一堂免疫学讲座——讲身体如何「识别自己、排除非己」。
Sakaguchi earned his medical degree from Kyoto University in 1976. The following year he made an unusual move: he left graduate school to join the Aichi Cancer Center as an unpaid research student, studying mice whose thymus had been removed. Surprisingly, the animals developed inflammation that attacked their own tissues. He sensed a hidden mechanism — some cell must be calming the immune response — and this puzzle pulled him away from conventional training toward bold, original inquiry.
坂口 1976 年获京都大学医学学位。次年他做了一个不寻常的决定：从研究生院退学，以无薪研究生的身份加入爱知县癌症中心，研究被切除胸腺的小鼠。出人意料的是，这些动物出现了攻击自身组织的炎症。他隐约感到背后藏着某种机制——必有细胞在平息免疫反应——这个谜题把他从常规训练引向大胆而原创的探索。
After a PhD from Kyoto in 1983 and postdoctoral years at Johns Hopkins, Stanford and Scripps, Sakaguchi made his landmark discovery in 1995. He identified a subset of T cells, marked by the molecule CD25, that could suppress autoimmune reactions — cells he would later name regulatory T cells. At the time most scientists believed immune tolerance depended only on the thymus; his finding, as the Nobel Committee put it, had him "swimming against the tide."
1983 年获京都大学博士，并先后在约翰·霍普金斯、斯坦福与斯克里普斯从事博士后研究后，坂口于 1995 年做出里程碑式的发现。他识别出一类带有 CD25 分子的 T 细胞，能抑制自身免疫反应——他后来将其命名为调节性 T 细胞。当时多数科学家认为免疫耐受只依赖胸腺；正如诺奖委员会所言，他的发现堪称「逆潮流而动」。
In 2003 Sakaguchi proved that the FOXP3 gene discovered by his future co-laureates governs these cells' development, linking the two lines of work. In 2025 he shared the Nobel Prize with Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell. Now a distinguished professor at Osaka University, he urges young researchers to question prevailing theories — for, he shows, the deepest truths often wait where the current flows least.
2003 年，坂口证明，由未来两位合作者发现的 FOXP3 基因，正是调控这些细胞发育的主控基因，从而把两条研究线索联在一起。2025 年，他与玛丽·布伦科、弗雷德·拉姆斯德尔共享诺奖。如今身为大阪大学杰出教授的他，勉励青年研究者质疑既有定论——因为最深刻的真理，往往静候在逆流最少处。
三、高考实战· Gaokao Practice
1. What first sparked Sakaguchi's interest in immunology?
A. A sculpture class. | B. A lecture on 'recognise self, exclude non-self'. |
C. A clinic run by his father. | D. A psychiatry course. |
2. Why did Sakaguchi leave graduate school to join Aichi Cancer Center?
A. He failed his exams. |
B. He wanted to study a puzzling immune phenomenon directly. |
C. He disliked Kyoto University. |
D. He was ordered to. |
3. The phrase 'swimming against the tide' in the passage means _____.
A. doing water sports | B. opposing the dominant scientific view |
C. studying fish immune systems | D. leaving Japan |
4. Which title best fits the passage?
A. From Artist to Immune Pioneer | B. How the Thymus Works |
C. The CD25 Molecule | D. Why Mice Lose Their Thymus |
四、词汇积累· Word Bank
单词 Word | 释义 Meaning | 文中例句 Example |
sculpture | (n.) 雕塑；雕刻 | drawing and sculpture 绘画与雕塑 |
thymus | (n.) 胸腺 | mice whose thymus had been removed 被切除胸腺的小鼠 |
subset | (n.) 子集；亚群 | a subset of T cells 一类 T 细胞亚群 |
prevailing | (adj.) 流行的；占主导的 | question prevailing theories 质疑既有定论 |
教师版· Teacher Edition
一、文本分析与主题学习全貌
主题 志趣转向与质疑精神——一位曾想当艺术家的少年，因一堂讲座转向免疫学，并以逆潮流的勇气重新定义免疫耐受。
体裁 人物传记 / 成长叙事，夹叙夹议，以个人志趣转折与科学突破双线交织。
语言特色 语言特色：叙事以一般过去时为主；含学术词（thymus, CD25, regulatory T cells, FOXP3）与比喻（swimming against the tide, the current）；多用因果与转折连词交代发现逻辑。
结构 结构：『艺术梦与医学转向→ 退学探谜 → 1995 里程碑发现 → 2003 联结与诺奖回响』四段递进，以『质疑 / 逆流』意象收束。
主题学习全貌：可串联『兴趣如何塑造科学家』『质疑权威与科学突破』『跨界思维的价值』等单元，引导学生建立『志趣—质疑—发现』阅读图式，积累词块（thymus / subset / prevailing / sculpture）。
