Ralph Marvin Steinman (January 14, 1943 – September 30, 2011)[2] was a Canadian physician and medical researcher at Rockefeller University, who in 1973 discovered and named dendritic cells while working as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Zanvil A. Cohn, also at Rockefeller University.

[9][10][11] The family soon moved to Sherbrooke, where the father opened and ran a small clothing store, "Mozart's."

After graduating from Sherbrooke High School, Steinman moved back to Montreal, where he stayed with his maternal grandparents, Nathan and Eva Takefman.

The other half went to Bruce Beutler and Jules A. Hoffmann, for "their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity".

This created a complication, since the statutes of the Nobel Foundation stipulate that the prize is not to be awarded posthumously.

[18][19] Steinman's daughter said that he had joked the previous week with his family about staying alive until the prize announcement.

Steinman found that antigens, lymphocytes, and "accessory cells" together create immune responses.