Just hours after the announcement that the 2011 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology had been awarded to three scientists for their work on the immune system, Rockefeller University announced that one of the researchers, Canadian-born Ralph Steinman, had died a few days earlier. Steinman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer four years ago, and his life was extended using a dendritic-cell based immunotherapy of his own design, the university said. His death creates a dilemma for the Nobel committee, which said they were unaware that he had passed away at the time they made their announcement. According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation since 1974, a dead person cannot be nominated for a prize posthumously, but someone who dies after the award is announced is still eligible.
