TT EE FF HHEE CCHHOO OOUUNNDDAATTIIOONN presents The Aaron Ciechanover Project: Living Science Student Dialogue April 5, 2011 hosted by William A. Hough High School 12420 Bailey Road Cornelius, North Carolina Dear Teachers, This year, through the template of science, coupled with The Echo Foundation’s commitment to creating a more humane world, The Aaron Ciechanover Project: Living Science promotes personal responsibility and offers opportunities for students and teachers alike to investigate a specific area of science and its far-reaching applications. The beauty and creativity inherent in scientific exploration opens up a universe of discovery for students as they come to learn from one of the great scientific minds of our time. What responsibility do we each bare, if not to contribute those talents which are our own to the service of humankind? The world urgently needs knowledgeable, responsible, and ethical leaders of tomorrow who will work toward the peaceful and dignified existence of all people. We thank you, teachers, now and always, for your commitment to incorporating social awareness into your daily lessons and shaping those who will direct the future. With wishes for a rewarding and inspired year, Stephanie G. Ansaldo, President The Echo Foundation The Aaron Ciechanover Project: Living Science Photo courtesy of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology THE ECHO FOUNDATION 1125 E. Morehead St., Suite 106 Charlotte, NC 28204 www.echofoundation.org The Echo Foundation 1 The Aaron Ciechanover Project Special Thanks The Echo Foundation thanks Kitengie Milka Shisso, 2010 summer intern and current UNCC student majoring in Chemistry, for the many dedicated hours she contributed to the research and development of the Aaron Ciechanover curriculum guide. Echo also thanks UNCC Chemistry professors Dr. Joanna Krueger and Dr. John Rimsley for their valuable insight and input into ensuring the validity and accuracy of the curriculum guide. Our gratitude also goes to Ms. Julie McConnell, Biology teacher at William A. Hough High School, for reviewing the curriculum guide and providing valuable resources during our research. Statement of Use The Echo Foundation is pleased to provide this curriculum guide for use in teaching and private study. For educational purposes only, you may reproduce (print, copy, or download) any part of this guide crediting The Echo Foundation as follows: Educational materials compiled by The Echo Foundation through its Voices Against Indifference Initiative The Echo Foundation 2 The Aaron Ciechanover Project The Aaron Ciechanover Project: Living Science Table of Contents I. An Introduction to Dr. Aaron Ciechanover……………………………………… 5 A. Autobiography B. Membership Organizations C. Awards, Honors & Honorary Degrees D. “The Dinner Companion” E. Chapter Study Questions II. Historical & Religious Background………………………………………………. 23 A. Israel’s Birth as a Nation B. Judaism: The Religion and the Culture C. Chapter Study Questions III. Social Interests……………………………………………………………………… 45 A. Education B. Relationship between Religion and Science C. Peace in the Middle East D. Chapter Study Questions IV. Discovery of Ubiquitin-Mediated Protein Degradation…………………………. 75 A. Alfred Nobel & the Nobel Prize B. Background Information C. The Discovery D. Biomedical Advances E. Chapter Study Questions V. Current Work at the Technion……………………………………………………. 108 A. The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology B. Dr. Ciechanover’s Current Work C. Chapter Study Questions VI. Reference Materials………………………………………………………………… 121 VII. The Echo Foundation’s Art and Writing Contests………………………………. 130 VIII. Appendix: About the Echo Foundation…………………………………………… 134 The Echo Foundation 3 The Aaron Ciechanover Project The Echo Foundation 4 The Aaron Ciechanover Project I. An Introduction to Dr. Aaron Ciechanover A. Autobiography……………………………………………………………... 6 B. Membership Organizations………………………………………………… 16 C. Awards, Honors & Honorary Degrees…………………………………….. 17 D. “The Dinner Companion”………………………………………………….. 19 E. Chapter Study Questions ………………………………………………….. 22 “The longer I am in science, the more I am in love with it. My love for science has never stopped but, on the contrary, has always deepened and broadened; it's an endless love story.” --Dr. Ciechanover, in an interview for Rambam On Call, a publication of Israel’s largest medical center Rambam Health Care Campus The Echo Foundation 5 The Aaron Ciechanover Project Autobiography By Dr. Aaron Ciechanover Excerpted from www.nobelprize.org 2004 The formative years - childhood in the newly born state of Israel I was born in Haifa, a port city in the northern part of Israel, in October 1947, one month before Israel was recognized by the United Nations (UN) as an independent state. It took several additional months to establish the necessary institutions and for the British to leave, and on May 15th 1948, David Ben-Gurion, the founding father of the modern Jewish state and its first Prime Minister, made Israel a fact and declared its establishment as a democratic state and a home for every Jew in the world. The neighboring, but even more distant Arab countries, along with powerful Arab parties from Map of Israel with cutout showing the location of Haifa. within, did not accept the UN resolution and Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org deliberately decided to alter it by force. A bloody and costly war erupted. It lasted a year, and more than 1% of the population of the newly born and defenseless state sacrificed their lives on its defense. I assume that the first two years of my life (1947-1949) were extremely difficult for my parents, Bluma (nee Lubashevsky) and Yitzhak, who immigrated from Poland with their families as adolescents in the mid-1920s. Why did their families leave Poland - their "homeland" - their houses, working places, property, relatives and friends, and decided to make their new home in a place with a vague, if any, clear future, that was part of the British Empire? They were idealists who enthusiastically followed the call of the Zionist movement that was established at the turn of the century by Benjamin Ze'ev Herzel - the seer of the Jewish State - to settle the land and make it - after two thousand years in the Diaspora, since the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem - a home for the Jews. Following the Jewish Congress in Basel (Switzerland) in 1896, Herzel declared: "In Basel I founded the Jewish State". At that time Israel was part of the Ottoman Empire and became in 1917 part of the British Empire. My parents came from religious families, and the move, I believe, had also religious roots: Jews, throughout their lives in the Diaspora, have not stopped dreaming of having their own country, with Jerusalem as its capital, a dream that was driven by a biblical decree and Benjamin Ze’ev Herzel, the prophecy: "Thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the founder of Zionism. Photo children of Israel from among the nations, whither they are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into The Echo Foundation 6 The Aaron Ciechanover Project their own land" (Ezekiel 37:21); "And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children's children, for ever" (Ezekiel 37:25); "And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying" (Isaiah 65:19). The question of timing was an important one, as despite centuries of continuous persecution and discrimination in Europe, the initial idea to establish a Jewish State had been the dream of a few. Only small groups of Jews settled in Israel during the 18th, 19th, and the beginning of the 20th century. It was only towards the end of the 19th century, with the ideas of Herzel and the moves that led to the Balfour declaration (the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, who declared in 1917 the recognition in the need for a Jewish homeland), that an active Zionist movement and institutions were established, resulting in the translation of the dream into reality. Yet, it took an enormous amount of courage and daring by these European Jews to materialize this dream and try to establish, with almost no resources or support, a homeland in a place they had dreamt of for two thousand years, but that was not theirs at the time. The process was clearly accelerated by the heavy clouds that then covered the skies of Europe and that ended with the Holocaust. Many members of my parents' families immigrated to Israel before the Holocaust, but those who remained in Poland were British Prime Minister Arthur perished by the murderous German and their loyal Polish Balfour, author of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which collaborators. The conversion of this movement into a State at supported the establishment of a that particular time (1947-1948) was no doubt the direct Jewish homeland in Palestine. Photo historical result of the holocaust, and symbolized the rise of courtesy of Wikimedia Commons the Jewish Nation from ash. My father was a clerk in a law firm (later - along with my brother - he studied law and became a lawyer), and my mother was a housewife and English teacher. My brother, Joseph (Yossi), who is 14 years older then me, was already on his national military compulsory service when I was 4 years old, the age from which I remember myself. I grew up in Haifa and enjoyed the wonderful beaches and Mount Carmel that rolls into the Mediterranean Sea. From my early days at home I remember a strong encouragement to study. My father worked hard to make sure we obtained the best possible education, and at the same time he was a member in the "Hagannah" (defense), one of the pre-state military organizations that fought the British for an independent Jewish State. Working in a law firm in the Arab section of the city, he risked his life daily going to work during the pre independence war hostilities and then the war time. My brother told me the family was waiting daily on the balcony to see him returning home safely. At home he used every free minute to delve into classic literature, Jewish religious law (Mishnah and Talmud) and modern law books. An important part of the education at home involved Judaism and Zionism. On the Jewish side we obtained a liberal modern orthodox education. We attended services in the synagogue every Saturday and during holidays, and celebrated at home all Jewish feasts. Needless to say that my mother kept a kosher kitchen. It was extremely important for my parents to educate us as a new breed of proud Israeli Jews in their own independent country. My father The Echo Foundation 7 The Aaron Ciechanover Project inherited me with his love of Jewish studies and cultural life. To this very day, along with several physicians and scientists colleagues, I take regular lessons taught by a rabbinical scholar, on how the Jewish law views moral and ethical problems related to modern medicine and science. Jewish cantorial music reflecting prayers of Jews along many centuries has become my favorite music, and I avidly search for this vanishing vocal expression of Jewish culture in flea markets, used records stores, and auctions all over. Also, different Judaica artifacts decorate my study. In parallel, my parents made sure we should receive an excellent general education. My father spoke fluently several languages, Hebrew, Polish, Jewish scroll. Photo courtesy of Examiner.com Arabic, French, English, German and Yiddish, and wanted me to acquire his strong love for books: while our home was not a rich one, we had a huge library. My parents also loved classical music, so we had a great collection of 78 rpm, and later 33 rpm records. The apparently peaceful life of our family in Israel (although under the British Crown) during the years of the Holocaust in Europe (1939-1945) were overshadowed by the murder of their family members and of many families of their relatives and friends that did not escape Europe in time. For my parents, the establishment of the State of Israel as an independent and sovereign Jewish State was a direct historical result of the Holocaust in Europe and a clear statement of "Never Massadah shall fall again" (Massadah was one of the last strongholds of Jews during the Roman Empire. It fell into Roman hands after a long curfew during which all its defenders committed suicide in order not to fall as prisoners in Roman hands. While asiring for freedom, they lost their land and lives. They were not ready to live anywhere or under any circumstances, but as free people in their own land). They left us with the idea that the Jewish State will not only protect us as a free people, but will allow us to develop our own unique culture in a more general national context, rather than as minorities scattered in different countries in the Diaspora. Falling in love with Biology From early days I remember my strong inclination towards biology, though it has taken different directions at different times. I remember collecting flowers on Mount Carmel and drying them in the heavy Babylonian Talmud of my brother. I will never forget his rage at discovering my love of nature hidden among the pages of the old Jewish tracts. Then came the turtles and the lizards, and extracting chlorophyll from leaves with alcohol, and the first microscope my brother bought me from his trip to England when I was 11 years old. With this microscope I discovered cells (in the thin onion epithelium) and did my first experiment in osmosis, when I followed the alteration in the volume of the cells after immersing the epithelium in salt solutions of different strengths. With friends we tried to launch a self propelled rocket. The flowers collection kept growing, now in special dedicated albums, and with it, a small collection of skeletons of different animals - fish, frog, snake, turtle, and even some human bones I received from an older friend who was a medical student. After several years of amateurish flirting with biology, I decided to formalize my knowledge and love of biology, and to major in biology in high school. While my years in elementary (1953-1959) and junior high school (1959-1963) were mostly uneventful and passed The Echo Foundation 8 The Aaron Ciechanover Project