During a period in the 1970s, Ralph Steinman used this microscope several times a day to study the reactions of white blood cells. Steinman’s research related to how our immune system defends the body against foreign substances and microorganisms. The study in which he used the microscope was part of the work that was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Ralph Steinman died a couple of days before the Nobel Prize was announced in October 2011. It was decided long ago that a Nobel Prize can only be awarded to people who are alive, but word of his death had not reached the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, and the decision was made to let Steinman be represented by his family at the Nobel Prize ceremony.
The microscope was presented to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2017 by Maggi Pack, a colleague of Ralph Steinman at Rockefeller University.
