2026 Nobel Prize season opens with medicine award in Stockholm

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine will be announced at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on Monday, marking the official start of the annual ceremony celebrating scientific and cultural achievements.

This year's prize money stands at 12 million Swedish kronor, approximately USD 1.2 million, regardless of whether it is awarded to an individual, a small group of laureates or an organisation.

The medicine prize announcement will be followed by the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and the literature prize on Thursday. The peace prize will be awarded on Friday, with the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences to be announced on October 12.

Last year's medicine prize was awarded to three scientists—Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi—for their groundbreaking work on how the immune system distinguishes between harmful pathogens and the body's own cells. Their discoveries centred on peripheral immune tolerance, a key mechanism that prevents the immune system from attacking healthy tissue. The research has proven critical for understanding autoimmune conditions including Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.