生命科学与医学奖
2011

世界充满可致命的微生物，人类得以生存，免疫系统的作用至为关键。这个系统有两个主要部分：其一是为人熟知的「适应性」免疫系统，由人体曾经所受的感染或有效的疫苗启动，人体再受相同的微生物入侵时，系统即起作用。另一种是先天性免疫系统，在进化过程中历史早得多，但较为无闻。人体受到感染即马上起作用，出现发炎反应。两个系统对人类的生存都举足轻重。婴儿初生时若欠缺有效的适应性免疫系统，例如患有严重复合性免疫缺乏症，必须采取非常步骤，如进行骨髓移植手术，方可生存。欠缺正常运作的先天性免疫系统也可致命，先天性免疫系统主要部分发生突变的患者会反复出现严重感染，即是一例。

三位科学家获得2011年度邵逸夫生命科学与医学奖：法国斯特拉斯堡大学教授朱尔斯・霍夫曼(Jules A Hoffman)、耶鲁大学大卫・华莱士免疫学讲座教授鲁斯兰・麦哲托夫(Ruslan M Medzhitov)和斯克利普斯研究院遗传学学系主任布鲁斯・比尤特勒 (Bruce A Beutler)。三位科学家的开创性研究确定了先天性免疫系统的机制，也为其他人大量的研究工作打开局面，取得进展之大固不待言，而且可以预期研究成果将可应用，将有助提高免疫系统的整体机能。

The immune system is central to the survival of humans in a world filled with potentially deadly microbes.  Immunity has two major components: (i) the familiar “adaptive” immune system, mobilized by previous infections or vaccines to protect us against subsequent encounters with specific microbes, and (ii) the less well-known, innate immune system, which is immediately mobilized in response to infection through inflammatory responses.  Both systems are essential for human survival.  Infants born without a functioning adaptive immune system, such as those with “severe combined immunodeficiency”, require heroic measures, such as bone marrow transplantation, if they are to survive.  But the lack of a normally functioning innate immune system is also life-threatening, as is seen in the repetitive severe infections in those with mutations in key components of the innate immune system.

The 2011 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine is awarded to Jules Hoffmann, Professor at the University of Strasbourg, Ruslan Medzhitov, David W. Wallace Professor of Immunobiology at Yale University, and Bruce Beutler, Professor of Immunology, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.   These three scientists have done path-breaking work that established the mechanisms of the innate system and provide new avenues for drug design to improve the overall function of the immune system.