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The decision to award the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Ralph Steinman on Monday would remain unchanged, the Nobel Foundation said in a statement Monday afternoon.

Ralph Steinman [File photo]

Steinman who would share half of this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine died on Friday, said the president of Rockefeller University where Steinman worked three hours after the announcement of this year's Nobel Prize winners by the Nobel Assembly at the Swedish Karolinska institute.

"According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, work produced by a person since deceased shall not be given an award. However, the statutes specify that if a person has been awarded a prize and has died before receiving it, the prize may be presented," the statement said.

"The events that have occurred are unique and, to the best of our knowledge, are unprecedented in the history of the Nobel Prize," the foundation said.

An interpretation of the purpose of this rule leads to the conclusion that Steinman shall be awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the foundation explained.

The purpose of the above-mentioned rule is to make it clear that the Nobel Prize shall not deliberately be awarded posthumously. However, the decision to award the Nobel Prize to Steinman was made in good faith, the foundation added.

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