Scienceאהרן צ'חנובר

Aaron Ciechanover

Aaron Ciechanover is an Israeli biochemist and physician who shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering how cells break down proteins using ubiquitin.

born 19472004 Nobel Prize in ChemistryDiscovering ubiquitin-mediated protein breakdownResearch at the Technion

Born: 1 October 1947, Haifa
Occupation: biochemist, chemist, physician, pedagogue
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hadassah Medical Center, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Aaron Ciechanover was born in 1947 in Haifa

Ciechanover was born in Haifa in 1947 to a Jewish family. His parents came to Israel from Poland. His father was an office worker in a law firm and his mother taught English. He lost his mother at age 9 and was later raised by his aunt and his older brother Yosef.

After high school he joined the Academic Reserve and studied medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned a master's degree in 1971 and a medical degree in 1974. He completed a doctorate at the Technion under Avram Hershko and did postdoctoral research at MIT from 1981 to 1984.

From 1973 to 1976 he served as a doctor in the IDF. He then joined the Technion's medical faculty, where he became a full professor in 1992.

With Hershko and Irwin Rose he described the ubiquitin system, which marks proteins for breakdown inside the cell. The work earned the three the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004. He also received the Lasker Award in 2000 and the Israel Prize in 2003.

He is a member of several science academies and advises biotech companies. In 2018 he opened an institute in his name at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. He is married to Dr. Menucha Ciechanover and has a son.