Nobel winner who died Friday will retain prize
The scientist who died Friday, three days before the announcement that he had won the 2011 Nobel Prize for medicine, will remain the winner, the Nobel Foundation has announced.
Ralph Steinman – one of this year’s three Nobel laureates in physiology or medicine – died of pancreatic cancer on Sept. 30. The foundation was informed of Steinman’s passing on Monday, just hours after the Nobel Assembly had announced the winners.
“The events that have occurred are unique and, to the best of our knowledge, are unprecedented in the history of the Nobel Prize,” Nobel Foundation leaders said in a news release. “In light of this, the Board of the Nobel Foundation has held a meeting this afternoon.
According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, work produced by a person since deceased shall not be given an award. However, the statutes specify that if a person has been awarded a prize and has died before receiving it, the prize may be presented.”
Two others were named co-winners of the prize: Dr. Bruce A. Beutler of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Jules A. Hoffmann of Strasbourgh University in France. The three men were honored for their various advances in understanding the workings of the immune system.
Steinman, 68, discovered dendritic cells, powerful immune system cells that activate a stage of the immune response when invading foreign substances are cleared from the body. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer four years ago and part of his treatment included use of a dendritic-cell-based immunotherapy of his own design.
“The Rockefeller University is delighted that the Nobel Foundation has recognized Ralph Steinman for his seminal discoveries concerning the body’s immune responses,” Rockefeller University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne said in a news release. “But the news is bittersweet, as we also learned this morning from Ralph’s family that he passed a few days ago after a long battle with cancer. Our thoughts are with Ralph’s wife, children and family.”
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