With great pride, the Rappaport Institute announces that two of its members, Distinguished Research Professor Avram Hershko and Distinguished Research Professor Aaron Ciechanover, together with Irwin Rose of University of California, Irvine, are recipients of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Professors Hershko and Ciechanover were awarded the Nobel Prize in acknowledgement of their pioneering discovery of the Ubiquitin System for protein degradation - which regulates the energy-dependent breakdown of proteins governing almost all major functions of the cell. This discovery opened up entirely new research opportunities which have led, most notably, towards understanding the pathogenesis of, and developing treatments for cancer, neurodegenerative disorders and more.