Avram Hershko facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Avram Hershko
Hershko in 1994
Born	Herskó Ferenc Ábrahám (1937-12-31) December 31, 1937 (age 87) Karcag, Hungary
Nationality	Hungary Israel
Alma mater	Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Known for	Ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation
Spouse(s)	Judith Leibowitz ​ (m. 1963)​
Children	3
Awards	Weizmann Prize (1987) Wolf Prize in Medicine (2001) Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2004)
Scientific career
Fields	Chemistry
Institutions	Technion, Haifa

Avram Hershko (Hebrew: אברהם הרשקו, romanized: Avraham Hershko, Hungarian: Herskó Ferenc Ábrahám; born December 31, 1937) is a famous Hungarian-Israeli biochemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004 for his important discoveries about how cells in our bodies work.

Avram Hershko's Life Story

Avram Hershko was born as Herskó Ferenc in Karcag, Hungary. He grew up in a Jewish family. His parents, Shoshana and Moshe Hershko, were both teachers.

During World War II, life was very difficult for Avram and his family. His father was forced to join the Hungarian army for labor. Later, he was taken as a prisoner by the Soviet Army. For many years, Avram's family didn't know what had happened to him. Avram, his mother, and his older brother Chaim were forced to live in a special area called a ghetto in Szolnok.

Near the end of the ghetto, many Jewish people were sent to Auschwitz. However, Avram and his family managed to get on trains that took them to a work camp in Austria. They were forced to work there until the war ended. Avram, his mother, and his brother survived the war and returned home. His father also returned, four years after they had last seen him.

In 1950, when Avram was 12, his family moved to Israel and settled in Jerusalem. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem-Hadassah Medical Center. He earned his medical degree (MD) in 1965 and his PhD in 1969. After that, he did more research at the University of California, San Francisco.

Today, Avram Hershko is a very respected professor at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion in Haifa. He also teaches at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine.

Amazing Discovery: How Cells Clean Up

Avram Hershko, along with two other scientists, Aaron Ciechanover and Irwin Rose, won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. They won for discovering how cells break down and recycle proteins. This process is called ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation.

Think of it like this: Our bodies are made of tiny building blocks called cells. Inside these cells, there are many proteins that do important jobs. Sometimes, proteins get old or damaged, or the cell needs to get rid of them. Avram Hershko and his team found a special system that marks these proteins for destruction. A small protein called ubiquitin acts like a "tag" that tells the cell's recycling center (called the proteasome) to break down the marked protein.

This "ubiquitin-proteasome system" is super important for keeping our cells healthy. It helps cells stay balanced and work correctly. When this system doesn't work right, it can lead to serious diseases. These include different types of cancer, muscle diseases, brain diseases, and problems with our immune system.

Avram Hershko's discoveries have helped scientists understand these diseases better. His work has even directly helped to find cures for some illnesses, like a type of cancer that affected one of his friends.

Awards and Honors

Avram Hershko has received many important awards for his scientific work:

• 1987 – Weizmann Prize for Sciences
• 1994 – Israel Prize in Biochemistry
• 1999 – Canada Gairdner International Award (with Alexander Varshavsky)
• 2000 – Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (with Aaron Ciechanover and Varshavsky)
• 2000 – Member, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
• 2001 – Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University (with Varshavsky)
• 2001 – Wolf Prize in Medicine (with Varshavsky) for discovering the ubiquitin system.
• 2002 – The EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture in Life Sciences (with Ciechanover and Leo Sachs)
• 2003 – Foreign Associate, National Academy of Sciences, USA
• 2004 – Nobel Prize in Chemistry (with Ciechanover and Irwin Rose)
• 2005 – Elected to the American Philosophical Society

Involvement with Biotechnology

Avram Hershko is part of the Scientific Advisory Board for Oramed Pharmaceuticals. This means he helps guide the science behind their medical research.

See Also

In Spanish: Avram Hershko para niños

• List of Israel Prize recipients
• List of Israeli Nobel laureates
• List of Jewish Nobel laureates
• Science and technology in Israel
• Raz Hershko (born 1998), Israeli European champion and Olympic judoka