The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004 was awarded jointly to Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose "for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation".
 

Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose went against the stream and at the beginning of the 1980s discovered one of the cell's most important cyclical processes, regulated protein degradation. They have brought us to realise that the cell functions as a highly-efficient checking station where proteins are built up and broken down at a furious rate. Thanks to the work of the three Laureates it is now possible to understand at molecular level how the cell controls a number of central processes by breaking down certain proteins and not others. When the degradation does not work correctly, we fall ill. Cervical cancer and cystic fibrosis are two examples.
 

Prize amount: SEK 10 million, will be shared equally among the Laureates.