Class
| • | 2. Biological Sciences | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Aaron J. Ciechanover | | | Institution: | Technion - Israel Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 202. Cellular and Developmental Biology | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1947 | | | | | | |
Aaron Ciechanover was born in Haifa, Israel in 1947. He is currently on the academic staff of the Faculty of Medicine of the Technion in Haifa, Israel. He received his M.Sc. (1971) and M.D. (1975) from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, and his D.Sc. (1982) from the Technion. There, as a graduate student with Dr. Avram Hershko and in collaboration with Dr. Irwin A. Rose from the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, they discovered that covalent attachment of ubiquitin to the target substrate signals it for degradation. They deciphered the mechanism of conjugation in a cell-free system, described the general proteolytic function of the system in cells, and proposed a model according to which this modification serves as a recognition signal for a specific downstream protease. As a post doctoral fellow with Dr. Harvey Lodish at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he collaborated with Drs. Alexander Varshavsky and Daniel Finley, and described the first mutant cell of the system, further corroborating the role of ubiquitin modification as a proteolytic signal in intact cells. Among the many prizes that Dr. Ciechanover received are the 2000 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dr. Ciechanover is a member of the Israeli National Academy of Sciences and Humanities, a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA and a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences of the Vatican. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Avram Hershko | | | Institution: | Technion-Israel Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1937 | | | | | | |
Avram Hershko was born in 1937 in Karcag, Hungary and emigrated with his family to Israel in 1950. He gained his M.D. (1965) and Ph.D. (1969) from the Hebrew University - Hadassah Medical School of Jerusalem, a period which included service as a physician in the Israel Defence Forces (1965-67). After a post-doctoral fellowship with Gordon Tomkins at the University of San Francisco (1969-72), he joined the faculty of the Haifa Technion, becoming professor in 1980. He is now Distinguished Professor in the Unit of Biochemistry in the B. Rappaport Faculty of Medicine of the Technion. His main research interests concern the mechanisms by which cellular proteins are degraded, a formerly neglected field of study. Dr. Hershko and his colleagues showed that cellular proteins are degraded by a highly selective proteolytic system. This system tags proteins for destruction by linkage to a protein called ubiquitin, which had previously been identified in many tissues, as the name suggests, but whose function was previously unknown. Subsequent work in Dr. Hershko's and many other laboratories has shown that the ubiquitin system has a vital role in controlling a wide range of cellular processes, such as the regulation of cell division, signal transduction and DNA repair. Abnormalities in the ubiquitin system result in diseases such as certain types of cancer. The full range of functions of the ubiquitin system in health and disease has still to be elucidated. Dr. Hershko was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2004) jointly with his former Ph.D. student Aaron Ciechanover and their colleague Irwin Rose. His many honors include the Israel Prize for Biochemistry (1994), the Gardner Award (1999), the Lasker Prize for Basic Medical Research (2000), the Wolf Prize for Medicine (2001) and the Louisa Gross Horwitz Award (2001). Dr. Hershko is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences (2000) and a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (2003). | |
| 3 | Name: | Sir David J. Weatherall | | | Institution: | University of Oxford | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 204. Medicine, Surgery, Pathology and Immunology | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1933 | | | Death Date: | December 8, 2018 | | | | | | |
David Weatherall was a life-long student of the thalassemias. He was involved in identifying the general molecular nature of this group of hereditary anemias and in describing the genetic and clinical heterogeneity of both alpha- and beta-thalassemias. He also studied their influence on populations in many parts of the world and the role of malaria in determining their frequency. Both clinician and scientist, editor of the Oxford Textbook of Medicine and author of The New Genetics in Clinical Practice, Dr. Weatherall has played a significant role in bringing molecular genetics into the main stream of clinical medicine. He has been associated with the University of Oxford for more than thirty years as Nuffield Professor of Clinical Medicine (1974-92), Regius Professor of Medicine (1992-2000) and, after 2001, Regius Professor of Medicine Emeritus and Honorary Director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford. In 2002 he was appointed Chancellor of Keele University. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1988); the Royal Society (vice president, 1990-91); the National Academy of Sciences (1990); and the Institute of Medicine (1990). David Weatherall was elected a member of the American Philosophical society in 2005. He died on December 8, 2018 at the age of 85. | |
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