PhD. Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Aaron Ciechanover is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Faculty of Medicine of the Technion in Haifa, Israel. Following his graduate studies, Ciechanover obtained his post-doctoral training with Dr. Harvey Lodish at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) and the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. In parallel, he continued his independent work on the ubiquitin system and studied the mechanism of recognition of protein substrates by the ubiquitin system, which endows the system with its high specificity and selectivity. Following his return to Israel he joined the Faculty of Medicine of the Technion in Haifa and established his own laboratory .He is one-third winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2004 for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation. He is a member of the Israeli National Academy of Sciences.

Selected Publication

Ciechanover, A., Hod, Y. and Hershko, A. (1978). A Heat-stable Polypeptide Component of an ATP-dependent Proteolytic System from Reticulocytes. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 81, 1100–1105.

Ciechanover, A., Heller, H., Elias, S., Haas, A.L. and Hershko, A. (1980). ATP-dependent Conjugation of Reticulocyte Proteins with the Polypeptide Required for Protein Degradation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77, 1365–1368.

Hershko, A. and Ciechanover, A. (1982). Mechanisms of intracellular protein breakdown. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 51, 335–364.

Awards

In 2000, Ciechanover received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research.

In 2003, he was awarded the Israel Prize, for biology.

In 2004, he was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery with Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose, of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation.The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway has a critical role in maintaining the homeostasis of cells and is believed to be involved in the development and progression of diseases such as: cancer, muscular and neurological diseases, immune and inflammatory responses.

In 2006, he was awarded the Sir Hans Krebs Medal.

In 2009, he was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Science by the University of Cambodia.