Nobel Winner’s Contribution Questioned

A coauthor of the key paper that led to one of this year’s Nobel Prizes for Physiology or Medicine claims the recipient wasn’t involved in the research.

Written byCristina Luiggi
| 2 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
2:00
Share

Bruno Lemaitre (left) and Jules Hoffmann (right)EPFL (LEMAITRE), WIKIPEDIA (HOFFMAN)

A scientist is accusing French immunologist Jules Hoffmann, who was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine along with Bruce Beutler for the discovery in Drosophila that the Toll gene regulates the immune response against bacteria and fungi, of not doing the research that led to the prize. The accusation comes from none other than the first author of the 1996 Cell paper where the finding was reported, Bruno Lemaitre.

Lemaitre, who worked as a research associate in Hoffmann’s lab at the at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Strasbourg, France, from 1992 to 1998, claims that for most of the 1990s, he was the only researcher working on Toll and that Hoffmann did not express interest and was for the ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Related Topics

Meet the Author

Share
February 2026

A Stubborn Gene, a Failed Experiment, and a New Path

When experiments refuse to cooperate, you try again and again. For Rafael Najmanovich, the setbacks ultimately pushed him in a new direction.

View this Issue
Human-Relevant In Vitro Models Enable Predictive Drug Discovery

Advancing Drug Discovery with Complex Human In Vitro Models

Stemcell Technologies
Redefining Immunology Through Advanced Technologies

Redefining Immunology Through Advanced Technologies

Ensuring Regulatory Compliance in AAV Manufacturing with Analytical Ultracentrifugation

Ensuring Regulatory Compliance in AAV Manufacturing with Analytical Ultracentrifugation

Beckman Coulter Logo
Conceptual multicolored vector image of cancer research, depicting various biomedical approaches to cancer therapy

Maximizing Cancer Research Model Systems

bioxcell

Products

Sino Biological Logo

Sino Biological Pioneers Life Sciences Innovation with High-Quality Bioreagents on Inside Business Today with Bill and Guiliana Rancic

Sino Biological Logo

Sino Biological Expands Research Reagent Portfolio to Support Global Nipah Virus Vaccine and Diagnostic Development

Beckman Coulter

Beckman Coulter Life Sciences Partners with Automata to Accelerate AI-Ready Laboratory Automation

Refeyn logo

Refeyn named in the Sunday Times 100 Tech list of the UK’s fastest-growing technology companies