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Not Just an Anybody in Antibodies

Shivah Stars

by
Marc Tracy
October 06, 2011
Dr. Ralph M. Steinman(Rockefeller University/Getty Images/NYT)
Dr. Ralph M. Steinman(Rockefeller University/Getty Images/NYT)

Each week, we select the most interesting Jewish obituary. This week, it’s that of Dr. Ralph M. Steinman, who died at 68 of pancreatic cancer (the same thing that claimed Steve Jobs) mere days before the committee in Oslo named him one of this year’s three recipients of the Nobel Prize in Medicine. (Because the committee was unaware of his death, the prize, which is not permitted to be awarded posthumously, will still go to him.) A Jew, Montreal born, he attended the Harvard of Canada, McGill, and then Harvard. Though he won the Nobel for making among the most basic insights into immunology, such as how the immune system mobilizes to fight infection, some of his more advanced studies extended to treatment of ailments like AIDS and cancer; he was receiving experimental treatment based on his own science.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.