Photo credit: Avi Blizovsky — Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Irwin Rose
1926–2015 · United States · 20th century
Nobel Chemistry 2004
American biochemist who co-discovered ubiquitin tagging, the cell's universal system for targeted protein destruction.
Nobel Prize work
With Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover he explained how cells tag proteins for destruction: the small protein ubiquitin is covalently attached to targets, marking them for disposal by the proteasome. This ubiquitin-mediated degradation turned out to control cell division, repair and countless regulatory processes.
Fields
Related topics
Protein structure and function
A protein is a sequence that folds into a shape; its surface and flexibility help determine what it can bind or catalyse.
PROTACs, targeted protein degradation
PROTACs are heterobifunctional molecules that redirect cellular protein-quality-control machinery to degrade a selected target.