Aaron Ciechanover, M.D., D.Sc., visiting professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Research Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, today was selected Oct. 6 to receive the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Ciechanover has been a visiting professor at Washington University since 1987, spending a portion of each year in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics. He is the 22nd Nobel Laureate associated with Washington University.
Ciechanover, 57, shared the award with Avram Hershko, M.D., Ph.D., 67, also from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and Irwin Rose, M.D., 78, from the University of California, Irvine. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored the three scientists for their groundbreaking discovery of a process that cells utilize to eliminate unwanted proteins.
In the late 1980s, the three scientists conducted studies that described a cellular pathway by which proteins are marked for destruction. The proteins are labeled with a small molecule called ubiquitin and then rapidly broken down in cellular waste disposers called proteasomes.
The system rigorously maintains the quality of proteins in cells by eliminating faulty and unneeded proteins. Discovery of the ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation pathway has led to the understanding of how the cell controls the cell cycle, DNA repair, gene transcription and some immune defense functions. Defects in the pathway may lead to cancer and is linked to many inherited diseases.
Ciechanover’s association with the University began with a two-year sabbatical during which he worked with Alan Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D., Harriet B. Spoehrer Professor and head of the Department of Pediatrics and professor of molecular biology and pharmacology at the School of Medicine and pediatrician-in-chief at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Ciechanover and Schwartz have focused their studies on the cellular biology of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation.
“My association with Washington University, which I consider to be my second home, has contributed greatly to my research,” Ciechanover says. “My association with the faculty there has been very fruitful, and I look forward to working with them in the coming years as well.”
Ciechanover earned his medical degree from Hadassah Medical School in Israel and was a graduate student in biochemistry with Hershko in Haifa. These studies, many of which were in collaboration with Rose, elucidated the protein degradation system.
Following four years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ciechanover returned to Haifa as a senior professor. In 2000, Ciechanover and Hershko received the Lasker Prize for their work on the ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation system.
The full-time and volunteer faculty of Washington University School of Medicine are the physicians and surgeons of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked second in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.