The future of medicine

 

Israeli Nobel Prize laureate Aaron Ciechanover gives the “Siemens Lecture 2015”.

 

Each year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation holds the Siemens Lecture: In the august premises of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation in Munich, a scientist of international repute takes to the lectern. On 3 June 2015 the honour went to Aaron Ciechanover, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2004. The Israeli biochemist addressed 100 invited guests with a lecture on the future of medicine, the title of his talk being “The Revolution of Personalized Medicine: Are We Going to Cure All Diseases, and at What Price?”

Ciechanover is Professor of Biochemistry at Israel’s Technion Institute in Haifa, and was awarded the Nobel Prize together with two colleagues for the discovery of a specific form of protein degradation controlled by the protein Ubiquitin. Damaged protein degradation can lead to severe illnesses and impair the immune system. For this reason, the discovery was an important milestone along the path to developing the suitable medicines.

 

The Siemens Lecture 2015 came firmly under the sign of the 50th anniversary of Israeli-German diplomatic relations. Thus, the Humboldt Foundation joined up with the Minerva Foundation and the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development, GIF, to host the event.