The Nobel Prize Committee has given the prize for medicine and physiology to three scientists – Bruce Beutler (USA), Ralph Steinman (Canada) and Jules Hoffmann (Luxembourg) – for their work in the field of immunology.
Studying the immune system will help in the fight against infections, inflammations and cancer. According to the representatives of the committee, this year’s award winners have made a revolution in our understanding of immunity and the key principles of its activation.
Beutler and Hoffmann have been awarded for the “research on the activation of innate immunity.” Steinman has earned the award for “the discovery of dendritic cells and their role in adaptive immunity.”
The size of the Nobel Prize is one million euros. The Nobel Foundation was established in 1900 as a private independent non-governmental organization. The first prize was 150,000 kroons. Alfred Nobel, the eminent engineer and chemist, announced his will in 1895. He pointed out five award nominations: literature, physics, chemistry, medicine and physiology, and promoting peace.
The Prize in Economics, initiated by the Swedish bank, is awarded on the same terms as other Nobel prizes. Taking this fact into account, the board of the Nobel Foundation have decided to no longer increase the number of nominations.
Source of the image: Medscape.
