His Life's Work

Ralph Steinman - a great scientist, an untimely death. Photo credit: Rockefeller University

Ralph Steinman was awarded for his discovery of the dendritic cell

Three scientists who "revolutionised" understanding of how the body fights infection have shared this year's Nobel prize for medicine. Bruce Beutler, of the US, Jules Hoffmann from France and Ralph Steinman from Canada all shared the prize. Profs Beutler and Hoffman discovered how the body's first line of defence was activated. Prof Steinman discovered the dendritic cell, which helps defeat infection.

In one of life's and nature's supreme ironies Professor Steinman became his very own experimental subject with the use of a vaccine he had developed, when he himself was discovered to have pancreatic cancer, an aggressive type of cancer that usually kills within a very short time. But because he aggressively treated himself with the vaccine, he lived an astonishing 4-1/2 years, to see a daughter married and a grandchild born.

"He was using his own immune therapy on his illness. I can't tell you how he was doing it. It's much too complex, I imagine. He worked with colleagues at Harvard (University) and Johns Hopkins (in Baltimore) on this type of therapy. We firmly believe that the therapy that he developed helped him - that it extended his life, since pancreatic cancer is such a lethal form." Linda Steinman

The Nobel committee, in awarding the Prize in Medicine co-jointly to Immunologist Ralph Steinman, had no idea he had died of his cancer several days previously. The dilemma was that no Nobel prize had ever consciously been awarded posthumously before. Under the circumstances, however, the Nobel committee determined that the prize would not be withdrawn, and Dr. Steinman's portion of the prize will go to his estate.

In 2003 Dr. Steinman was awarded the Gairdner Prize in Toronto, for his pioneering work into dendritic cells. In 2009 he had been named a co-recipient of the $500,000 Albany Medical Centre Prize, the most prestigious award in the United States for medicine, felt to be a potential precursor to the Nobel. As Prime Minister Harper said, "the Nobel Prize is a fitting final tribute to his life's work".

The only sad element here is that Dr. Steinman did not live long enough to receive the final accolade in celebration of his brilliant discovery that has successfully created an immense scientific/medical advance for humankind.