Avram Hershko, M.D.

Dr. Hershko received his M.D. in 1965 and his Ph.D in 1969 from the Hebrew UniversityHadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel. He is currently a Distinguished Professor at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion in Haifa. Along with Aaron Ciechanover and Irwin Rose, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation. Through the research earning the Nobel Prize, the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway was demonstrated to have a critical role in maintaining the homeostasis of cells and to be involved in the development and progression of diseases such as cancer, muscular and neurological diseases, and immune and inflammatory responses. Importantly, Dr. Hershko also advised that the development of the proteasome inhibitor Velcade be turned towards cancer, where it was eventually approved as a treatment for Multiple Myeloma.