This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry has gone to three scientists—two Israeli and one U.S.—for their discovery of the molecular machinery that cells use to dispose of defective or unnecessary proteins. The 25-year-old discovery laid the foundation for what has since become a vast area of medical research. Faulty protein-breakdown equipment, for instance, underlies cystic fibrosis, several neurodegenerative diseases, and certain types of cancer.
Aaron Ciechanover, 57, and Avram Hershko, 67, of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and Irwin Rose, 78, of the University of California, Irvine will share the roughly $1.4 million prize.