Work

An important process in our cells is the production of proteins. But proteins must also be broken down. At the beginning of the 1980s, Avram Hershko, Aaron Ciechanover and Irwin Rose showed that one protein, ubiquitin, has a special mission in this context. When it is time for a protein to be broken down, a ubiquitin molecule attaches itself to the protein. The ubiquitin molecule serves as a key that enters a proteasome, a protein complex that divides the protein into smaller pieces. These can be used in the construction of other substances in the cell.