10.03.2011

Immune system discoveries win 2011 medicine Nobel

PERALTAPROFITNESS.COM
Medicine, or physiology, is usually the first of the Nobel prizes awarded each year. Prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace were first awarded in 1901 accordance with the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel.
The award citation noted that the world's scientists had long been searching for the "gatekeepers" of the immune response by which man and other animals defend themselves against attack by bacteria and other micro-organisms.
Beutler and Hoffmann discovered receptor proteins that can recognize attacking microorganisms and which activate "innate immunity," the first step in the body's immune response.
"Ralph Steinman discovered the dendritic cells of the immune system and their unique capacity to activate and regulate adaptive immunity, the later stage of the immune response during which microorganisms are cleared from the body," it added.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44753688/ns/health-health_care/?ocid=twitter