The Emet Prize is awarded to Prof. Moshe Oren for his trailblazing research into the understanding of the molecular and biochemical foundations of cancer and his leading-edge contribution to the discovery and characterization of the p53 protein and the gene associated with this protein.
Prof. Moshe Oren was born in Poland in 1948. He completed his M.Sc. studies at Tel Aviv University and his doctoral studies at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.
Prof. Oren’s research has focused on the genetic and biochemical mechanisms involved in malignant processes, and particularly on the p53 gene, an important inhibitor against the development of cancerous tumors.
He was the first researcher to successfully clone the p53 gene, thus laying the foundations for many research studies in laboratories around the world. He later proved that p53 is capable of precipitating the death of cancerous cells via an active death process. This important ability of p53 is now used as the basis for the development of experimental anti-cancer drugs.
Over the years, Prof. Oren was a researcher in the Chemical Immunology Department at the Weizmann Institute of Science, a visiting professor at the Biochemistry Department of Stanford University, the director of the Forchheimer Center for Molecular Genetics, chair of the Council of Professors at the Weizmann Institute, deputy chair of the institute’s Scientific Council and Dean of its Faculty of Biology. His research has earned him recognition and a number of awards, including the Feher Prize for Medical Research, in 1993, the Abisch-Frenkel Award, in 1999 and the Lombroso Award in 2002.
He is a member of the editorial boards of several professional periodicals and publications that deal with cancer, cellular biology and molecular biology.
