ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the discovery of the ubiquitin-proteasomal pathway is described. The fundamental research of Nobel Prize laureates Avram Hershko, Aaron Ciechanover, and Irwin Rose is detailed, and addressed within is the concept of polyubiquitination, or the generation of a chain of ubiquitin proteins attached to one another, as a mode of targeting proteins to the proteasome for degradation. Special emphasis is placed on how the translation of the initial discovery of the ubiquitin protein in 1975 and the elucidation of this novel pathway for the degradation of proteins have morphed into a major target for the development of new drugs for various cancers.
