3 Share Nobel Prize In Medicine For Immune System Work

alphadogg writes "This year's Nobel Laureates have revolutionized our understanding of the immune system by discovering key principles for its activation. Scientists have long been searching for the gatekeepers of the immune response by which man and other animals defend themselves against attack by bacteria and other microorganisms. Bruce Beutler and Jules Hoffmann discovered receptor proteins that can recognize such microorganisms and activate innate immunity, the first step in the body's immune response. Ralph Steinman discovered the dendritic cells of the immune system and their unique capacity to activate and regulate adaptive immunity, the later stage of the immune response during which microorganisms are cleared from the body."

Steinman is dead

[zakkie]

AP says Steinman died September 30th (will get link after posting). Nobel prize not awarded posthumously, apparently.

Re:Steinman is dead

[zakkie]

Here's a link: http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Late+Canadian+scientist+Ralph+Steinman+shares+Nobel+prize+medicine/5493302/story.html

Although it looks like the prize will remain awarded.

Re:One prize, one person.

[Co0Ps]

I think the limit is 3 persons. This is actually a problem as many scientific discoveries today are done in teams much larger than that.

Re:Hmmmmm....

[vlm]

would they ever give the protein folding gamers a Nobel prize? Probably not - but they did make a significant contribution to science.

As far as I know they have not awarded a hard science prize merely for being donors. Otherwise I'm sure over the past century or two the humble lab rat would have earned a prize by now.

Also engineering achievements, at least solely with respect to being an engineering achievement, never win a prize.

For example, the politicians who paid for CERN have never won a prize (at least not for donating CERN funds). The engineers who design particle detectors never win a prize (design as in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, not design as in basic concept of operation). However the '92 physics prize was awarded to the inventor of the multiwire proportional chamber (a gross simplification is its kinda like a 3-d geiger counter instead of being a 0-d scalar detector, sorta)

Dead laurete

[miowpurr]

Ralph Steinman has died, he might not be awarded the Nobel after all. http://newswire.rockefeller.edu/?page=engine&id=1192 [rockefeller.edu]

Re:Nobel Prize

[niklask]

Except that there is no Nobel Prize in Economics. The Economics prize is a prize given by the Swedish "Fed", Riksbanken on honor of Nobel.

posthumous nobel regulations

[Anonymous Coward]

the regulations of the Nobel committee do NOT state that the prize can be awarded after the announcement. There is no mention whatsoever of an announcement in the regulations. They state, clearly, that the work of a dead scientist cannot be considered by the committee, implying the scientist has to be living while he is being considered. Unless a significant part of the "consideration" of the nobel committee was carried out during the weekend, Ralph should "keep" his prize. Given that Ralph had been a shoo-in for the prize for years already I'd say the committee did consider him enough while alive.

a grieving colleague of Ralph.