Laureate

GBM awards prize endowed by Elsevier/BBA for seminal research on the fundamental biological role of intracellular protein degradation

Biochemist and geneticist Alexander Varshavsky (California Institute of Technology, USA), who was born in Moscow and has lived in the USA since 1977, has been awarded the Otto Warburg Medal of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM). That medal is considered to be the highest German award for biochemists and molecular biologists.

By means of genetic research carried out with yeast and cell cultures of higher organisms, Alexander Varshavsky has made a decisive contribution to discovering the importance of the ubiquitin-dependent intracellular protein degradation, which plays a central role in many regulatory processes such as, for instance, in the cell cycle, in malignant transformation, in the regulation of inflammation, immune response, and many other biological processes.

Alexander Varshavsky was born in Moscow, Russia, where he studied chemistry and obtained his PhD in biochemistry. In 1977 he emigrated to the United States and has worked initially at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1992, his laboratory moved to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena.

The field of ubiquitin and regulated protein degradation was created In the 1980s, with the Varshavsky laboratory discovering the first and major biological functions of the ubiquitin system, the first degradation signals in short-lived proteins, and cloning the first ubiquitin ligases. Ubiquitylation marks proteins for degradation by the 26S proteasome. Specific malfunctions in the ubiquitin system play major roles in many human diseases, including cancer and neurodegeneration syndromes.

“Alexander Varshavsky’s research on ubiquitin-dependent intracellular protein degradation has revolutionised that area of research,” Professor Irmgard Sinning, president of GBM says. “We owe to him a series of discoveries with a tremendous impact on cell biology and helping us to better understand and study numerous diseases.”

“Let this award be an incentive to all early career scientists“, stated David Clark, SVP Life Science Journal Publishing at Elsevier. “Elsevier will continue to support each next generation of scientists with awards and support tools such as in our recent BiggerBrains campaign”.