Trio wins Nobel Medicine Prize for immune system research

Three scientists won the Nobel Medicine Prize Monday for work on the immune system, but in a surprising twist the jury learned that one of the winners of the award had died just days before.The new laureates were Bruce Beutler of the United States, Luxembourg-born Frenchman Jules Hoffmann, and Ralph Steinman of Canada, who it was discovered Monday had died on September 30.This years Nobel laureates have revolutionised our understanding of the immune system by discovering key principles for its activation, the jury said in a statement.The three were lauded for their work on the bodys complex defence system in which signalling molecules unleash antibodies and killer cells to respond to invading microbes.Understanding this throws open the door to new drugs and also tackling immune disorders, such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohns disease, in which the body mysteriously attacks itself.Their work has opened up new avenues for the development of prevention and therapy against infections, cancer and inflammatory diseases, the jury said.The Nobel jury was caught off guard though when it discovered hours after announcing the prize that Steinman had died of pancreatic cancer on Friday the age of 68.Prize regulations stipulate the award cannot be given posthumously.The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute that awards the prize was meeting late Monday to discuss how to handle the situation.Annika Pontikis, spokeswoman of the Nobel Foundation, could not confirm that if this was the first time such a situation had arisen, but said it was very unlikely it had occurred before.Earlier, the head of the Nobel Assembly, Goeran Hansson, insisted the committee would stand by its choice.