The Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine 2011: Bruce A. Beutler, Jules A. Hoffmann & Ralph M. Steinman

The Nobel Assembly has announced to award the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2011 with one half jointly to Bruce A. Beutler at the Scripps Research Institute in California and Jules A. Hoffmann at the French National Center for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity and the other half to Ralph M. Steinman at the Rockefeller University in New York City for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity on October 3, 2011 at Karolinska Institute.

The Nobel Prize Winners in Physiology or Medicine 2011

Bruce A. Beutler

NAME	Bruce Alan Beutler
BORN	December 29, 1957 (Chicago, IL, USA)
AGE	53 years
NATIONALITY	American
PARENTS	Emest Beutler (geneticist) and Brondelle May Fleisher (journalist)
BETTER HALF	Barbara Beutler (divorced)
CHILDREN	Daniel, Eliot and Jonathan
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND	B.A., University of California, San Diego, 1976
	M.D., Medicine, the University of Chicago, 1981
EXPERTISE	Immunology
IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS	the isolation of mouse tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and discovery of its inflammatory properties.
	the invention of recombinant inhibitors for TNF, now widely used for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.
	the discovery of the receptor for lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which revealed how mammals sense infection and how certain inflammatory diseases begin.
AWARDS & HONORS	(1994) Outstanding Investigator Award (American Federation for Clinical Research,USA)
	(2004) Robert Koch Prize (Robert Koch Stiftung, Germany)
	(2006) William B. Coley Award (Cancer Research Institute, USA)
	(2006) Gran Prix Charles-Leopold-Mayer (Académie des Sciences, France)
	(2007) Balzan Prize (International Balzan Foundation, Italy and Switzerland)
	(2007) Doctor of Medicine honoris causa from the Technical University of Munich
	(2007) Frederik B. Bang Award (International Endotoxin and Innate Immunity Society)
	(2008) National Academy of Sciences
	(2009) Albany Medical Center Prize
	(2011) Shaw Prize
	the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2011
AFFILIATION	the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
	University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, TX, USA
PRIZE MOTIVATION	"for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity"

Jules A. Hoffmann

NAME	Jules A. Hoffmann
BORN	August 2, 1941 (Echternach, Luxembourg)
AGE	70 years
NATIONALITY	French
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND	undergraduate degrees in Biology and Chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, France.
	Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Strasbourg in 1969
	post-doctoral training at the Institute for Physiologische Chemie at Philipps Universitat in Marburg an der Lahn, Germany in 1973-1974.
EXPERTISE	Biology
AWARDS & HONORS	(2003) Cancer Research Institute William B. Coley Award
	(2004) Robert Koch Prize
	(2007) Balzan Prize together with Bruce A. Beutler for Innate Immunity
	(2010) Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award (shared with Ruslan M. Medzhitov)
	(2010) Keio Medical Science Prize
	(2011) Gairdner Foundation International Award (shared with Shizuo Akira
	(2011) Shaw Prize (shared with Bruce A. Beutler and Ruslan M. Medzhitov
	(2011) CNRS Gold Medal
	the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2011
AFFILIATION	CNRS
PRIZE MOTIVATION	"for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity"

Ralph M. Steinman

NAME	Ralph Marvin Steinman
BORN	January 14, 1943 (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
DIED	September 30, 2011
AGE	68 years
NATIONALITY	Canadian
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND	B.Sc. degree from McGill University in 1963
	M.D.(magna cum laude) from Harvard Medical School in 1968
EXPERTISE	Immunology and Cell Biology
AWARDS & HONORS	(1998) William B. Coley Award
	(1999) Robert Koch Prize
	(2003) Gairdner Foundation International Award
	(2007) Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
	(2009) Albany Medical Center Prize (shared with Charles A. Dinarello and Bruce Beutler)
	the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2011
AFFILIATION	Rockefeller University, New York, USA
PRIZE MOTIVATION	"for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity"