Irwin Rose . American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004 , with his colleague Isaraelí Avram Hershko , by the discovery of protein degradation mediated by ubiquitin .
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 Scientific training
- 2 Investigations carried out
- 2 Awards
- 3 Sources
Biographical synthesis
He was born on 16 July as as 1926 in New York ( United States ). He began his studies in biochemistry at Washington State University , they were interrupted by World War II and later continued at the University of Chicago , where he graduated in 1948 and received his doctorate in 1952 .
Scientific training
Rose studied at the University of Washington and upon finishing her studies worked in the United States Navy as a radio technician . In 1952, he received his doctorate from the University of Chicago School of Medicine and has maintained a professional relationship with this center ever since. Rose has also worked at other universities and various research centers, such as the Biochemistry Department at Yale Medical School.
From 1963 to 1995 he worked at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, where he shared research work with Aaron Ciechanovery Avram Hershko in the 1980s . Together they discovered the process of elimination of proteins in cells that work Rose and his two colleagues shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004 .
Investigations carried out
Irwin Rose demonstrated, together with Ciechanover and Hershko, that the destruction of proteins occurs in a controlled way, in such a way that the cell marks the proteins to be destroyed with a much smaller molecule: ubiquitin; This is what has been called the “kiss of death”. The proteins thus marked are fragmented and eliminated by means of cellular enzymes called proteases, and the ubiquitin is free to be reused in another label.
Rose and her colleagues also isolated and characterized the activity of each of the three key enzymes (E1, E2, and E3) that operate in the ubiquitin system. They also demonstrated that the regulated degradation of proteins by the ubiquitin system is essential for the cell cycle to run normally.
Rose has also shown that ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis also plays a very important role in DNA repair and transcription, in controlling the state of re-synthesized proteins, and in the body’s immune response.
The studies by Rose and her colleagues have a direct application in medicine, since it is known that errors produced in this process can cause disease. Thus, for example, certain genetic alterations that lead to the production of proteins at an inappropriate time or excessively can lead to the appearance of cancer. Defects in this mechanism have also been linked to cystic fibrosis and can be the cause of a number of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease .