Introduction

The Rappaport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences was founded in 1974, in partnership with the Technion, through the bold initiative and generous support of the Rappaport family. The primary objective of the Rappaport Institute is to achieve scientific and academic excellence at the Faculty of Medicine through funding research and facilitating it, and thus promote the growth and development of both the Faculty and the Institute.

The promotion and facilitation of research at the Faculty of Medicine is realized through the continual funding of collaborative research programs, individual investigators and research infrastructure and by providing scientific, technical and administrative support at all levels.

In retrospect, the objective of the Rappaport Institute has been pursued with great success. Over the years, thanks to continual support of Rappaport family, leading edge research carried out at the Rappaport Institute and the Technion Faculty of Medicine contributed significantly to a deeper understanding of the complex inner workings of the human body, and has opened new doors toward treatments.  In fact, Mr. Bruce Rappaport predicted that these efforts would yield discoveries meriting recognition at the level of the Nobel Prize. Indeed, this courageous prediction became a reality, with the awarding of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Rappaport Institute and Faculty of Medicine members Professor Avram Hershko and Professor Aaron Ciechanover for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation.