Avram Hershko ( he, אברהם הרשקו, Avraham Hershko, hu, Herskó Ferenc Ábrahám; born December 31, 1937) is a Hungarian-Israeli

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of "biological ch ...

who received the

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

in 2004.

Biography

He was born Herskó Ferenc in

Karcag Karcag () is a large town in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county, in the Northern Great Plain region of central Hungary. Geography Karcag covers an area of and has a population of 20,632 people (2011). Transport Karcag has its own railway station, b ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

, the son of Shoshana/Margit 'Manci' (née Wulc) and Moshe Hershko, both teachers. including the Nobel Lecture ''The Ubiquitin System for Protein Degradation and some of its Roles in the Control of the Cell Division Cycle'' During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, his father was forced into labor service in the Hungarian army and then taken as a prisoner by the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

. For years, Avram's family didn't known anything about what had happened to his father. Avram, his mother and older brother were put in a

ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished ...

Szolnok Szolnok (; also known by other #Name and etymology, alternative names) is the county seat of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county in central Hungary. A City with county rights, city with county rights, it is located on the banks of the Tisza river, i ...

. During the final days of the ghetto, most Jews were sent to be murdered in

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

, but Avram and his family managed to board trains that took them to a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, where they were forced into labor until the end of the war. Avram and his mother survived the war and returned to their home. His father returned as well, 4 years after they had last seen him. Hershko and his family emigrated to Israel in 1950 and settled in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. He received his MD in 1965 and his PhD in 1969 from the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

Hadassah Medical Center Hadassah Medical Center ( he, הָמֶרְכָּז הָרְפוּאִי הֲדַסָּה) is an Israeli medical organization established in 1934 that operates two university hospitals in Jerusalem – one in Ein Karem and one in Mount Scopus –, ...

. He was a postdoctoral scholar at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It ...

. He is currently a Distinguished Professor at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion in

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

and a Distinguished Adjunct Professor at the

New York University Grossman School of Medicine NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School of ...

. Along with

Aaron Ciechanover Aaron Ciechanover ( ; he, אהרן צ'חנובר; born October 1, 1947) is an Israeli biologist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for characterizing the method that cells use to degrade and recycle proteins using ubiquitin. Biography Earl ...

and

Irwin Rose Irwin Allan Rose (July 16, 1926 – June 2, 2015) was an American biologist. Along with Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation. Educati ...

, he was awarded the 2004

for the discovery of

ubiquitin Ubiquitin is a small (8.6 kDa) regulatory protein found in most tissues of eukaryotic organisms, i.e., it is found ''ubiquitously''. It was discovered in 1975 by Gideon Goldstein and further characterized throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. Fo ...

-mediated protein degradation. The ubiquitin-

proteasome Proteasomes are protein complexes which degrade unneeded or damaged proteins by proteolysis, a chemical reaction that breaks peptide bonds. Enzymes that help such reactions are called proteases. Proteasomes are part of a major mechanism by whi ...

system 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, and immune and inflammatory responses. His contributions to science directly helped cure one of his long-time friends of cancer.

Honours and awards

*1987 – Weizmann Prize for Sciences *1994 –

Israel Prize The Israel Prize ( he, פרס ישראל; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History The Israel Prize is awarded annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state cer ...

in Biochemistry *1999 –

Canada Gairdner International Award The Canada Gairdner International Award is given annually by the Gairdner Foundation at a special dinner to five individuals for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a p ...

(with

Alexander Varshavsky Alexander Jacob Varshavsky (russian: link=no, Александр Яковлевич Варшавский; born 8 November 1946) is a Russian-American biochemist, noted for his discovery of the N-end rule of ubiquitination. A native of Moscow, he ...

) *2000 –

Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for a fundamental discovery that opens up a new area of biomedical science. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Medicine; almost 50 ...

(with

and Varshavsky) *2000 –

Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Prize The Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Prize was a $250,000 award given by the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation for outstanding oncological research. The prize was awarded annually from 1979 to 2005. Of the winners, 15 out of 37 have gone on to win eith ...

(with Varshavsky) *2000 – Member,

Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, based in Jerusalem, was established in 1961 by the State of Israel to foster contact between Israeli scholars in the sciences and humanities and create a think tank for advising the government on re ...

*2001 –

Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry is an annual prize awarded by Columbia University to a researcher or group of researchers who have made an outstanding contribution in basic research in the fields of biology or biochemis ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

(with Varshavsky) *2001 –

Massry Prize The Massry Prize was established in 1996, and until 2009 was administered by the Meira and Shaul G. Massry Foundation. The Prize, of $40,000 and the Massry Lectureship, is bestowed upon scientists who have made substantial recent contributions in ...

from the

Keck School of Medicine of USC The Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California teaches and trains physicians, biomedical scientists and other healthcare professionals, conducts medical research, and treats patients. Founded in 1885, it is the second oldest ...

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

(with Varshavsky) *2001 –

Wolf Prize in Medicine The Wolf Prize in Medicine is awarded annually by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics and Arts. The ...

(with Varshavsky) for "the discovery of the

system of intracellular protein degradation and the crucial functions of this system in cellular regulation." *2002 – The EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture in the category of Life Sciences (with Ciechanover and

Leo Sachs Leo Sachs (Hebrew: ליאו זקס; ‎ 14 October 1924 – 12 December 2013) was a German-born Israeli molecular biologist and cancer researcher. Born in Leipzig, he emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1933, and to Israel in 1952. There he join ...

) *2002 –

E.B. Wilson Medal The E.B. Wilson Medal is the American Society for Cell Biology's highest honor for science and is presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for significant and far-reaching contributions to cell biology over the course of a career. It is name ...

(with Varshavsky) *2003 – Foreign Associate,

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

, USA *2004 – Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery with Ciechanover and

, of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation *2005 – Elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

Publications

* * * * * *

Involvement with biotechnology

Professor Hershko serves on the Scientific Advisory Board o
Oramed Pharmaceuticals

References

External links

* including the Nobel Lecture ''The Ubiquitin System for Protein Degradation and some of its Roles in the Control of the Cell Division Cycle''
Website at the TechnionAvram Hershko's Short Talk: "Lessons from My Life in Science"

Crooked Timber

Jewish Virtual Library
Ubiquitin-Mediated Protein Degradation: From the lab to the bedside
Dan Hersko
The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hershko, Avram 1937 births Living people Nobel laureates in Chemistry Hungarian Nobel laureates Israeli Nobel laureates The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School alumni Hungarian biochemists Hungarian emigrants to Israel Hungarian Jews Israel Prize in biochemistry recipients EMET Prize recipients in the Life Sciences Israeli biochemists Israeli Jews Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences People from Haifa People from Karcag Technion – Israel Institute of Technology faculty Wolf Prize in Medicine laureates Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research Massry Prize recipients Schleiden Medal recipients Jewish concentration camp survivors Israeli people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Members of the American Philosophical Society New York University faculty University of California, San Francisco alumni