He was born Herskó Ferenc in
Karcag,
Hungary, into a
Jewish family,[2] the son of Shoshana/Margit 'Manci' (née Wulc) and Moshe Hershko, both teachers.[3]
During the
Second World War, his father was forced into
labor service in the Hungarian army and then taken as a prisoner by the
Soviet Army. 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 in
Szolnok. During the final days of the ghetto, most Jews were sent to be murdered in
Auschwitz, but Avram and his family managed to board trains that took them to a
concentration camp in
Austria, 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.[4]
Along with
Aaron Ciechanover and
Irwin Rose, he was awarded the 2004
Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of
ubiquitin-mediated
protein degradation. The ubiquitin-
proteasome 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.[5]
^Avram Hershko on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture The Ubiquitin System for Protein Degradation and some of its Roles in the Control of the Cell Division Cycle
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Avram Hershko on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture The Ubiquitin System for Protein Degradation and some of its Roles in the Control of the Cell Division Cycle