Nobel prize for medicine marred by death and controversy.

摘要

From Jean-Paul Sartre's refusal of the prize for literature in 1964 to questions about undue corporate influence in 2008, the Nobel prize has never been a stranger to drama and controversy. Few awards, however, have been tinged with as much sadness as the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Just hours after the Nobel Assembly announced that this year's prize would be shared between Bruce Beutler and Jules Hoffmann for their discovery of receptor proteins that activate innate immunity, and Ralph Steinman for his discovery of dendritic cells and their role in the activation and regulation of adaptive immunity, news filtered through that Steinman had in fact died just a few days earlier from pancreatic cancer.