The meteoric rise of regulated intracellular proteolysis

It is often the case in biology that research into breaking things down lag s behind research into synthesizing them, and this is certainly true for in tracellular proteolysis. Now that we recognize that intracellular proteolys is, triggered by attaching multiple copies of a small protein called ubiqui tin to target proteins, is fundamental to life, it is hard to believe that 20 years ago this field was little more than a backwater of biochemistry st udied by a handful of laboratories. Among the few were Avram Hershko, Aaron Ciechanover and Alexander Varshavsky, who were recently awarded the Albert Lasker award for basic medical research for discovering the importance of protein degradation in cellular physiology. This Timeline traces how they a nd their collaborators triggered the rapid movement of ubiquitin-mediated p roteolysis to centre stage.