Nobel Prize-winning Biochemist Wins uDEsia Prize

World-renowned Israeli chemist Avram Hershko has been awarded the University of Debrecen Science Impact Award (uDEsia) at the University of Debrecen. The Nobel Prize-winning researcher received the institution's most prestigious scientific award from Vice-Rector for Science László Csernoch.

The uDEsia Award, established by the Senate of the University of Debrecen, is awarded to a Nobel Laureate, or equivalent, who has a scientific relationship with the researchers and research communities of the University in any discipline of the University and who undertakes to become a member of the University's Scientific Advisory Board and to contribute to the scientific excellence of the institution as a member of the Board. The candidate also undertakes to provide classroom teaching to undergraduate and postgraduate students of the University.

Avram Hershko, an Israeli biochemist of Hungarian origin and professor at the University of Haifa, received the award this Wednesday, the University's website reports.

At the award ceremony, József Tőzsér, Vice Rector for Sector Development of the University of Debrecen, presented the Nobel Prize winner's scientific career. Avram Hershko is Professor at the Rappaport Family Research Institute of the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and Professor of Pathology at New York University. In 2004, he shared the Nobel Prize with two other researchers, Irwin Rose of the United States and Aaron Ciechanover of Israel, for identifying the biochemical mechanisms by which ubiquitin molecules separate protein molecules that are destined for degradation and destruction and cells break down the proteins they no longer need. The ubiquitin regulatory protein has the potential to cure a variety of inflammatory diseases and may also play a key role in the treatment of bone marrow cancer, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

The day before the award ceremony, the chemist gave a lecture entitled ‘The role of the ubiquitin system in health and disease’ to students and lecturers at the University of Debrecen's Life Sciences Building.