The International Conference on Peace has kicked off a six month series of dialogues in Cambodia featuring Nobel Laureates from around the world. The conference entitled “Bridges – Dialogue Towards a Culture of Peace” was launched on November 5 at the University of Cambodia (UC) under the presidency of Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An. The Deputy Prime Minister, who is in charge of the Council of Ministers, said that the Cambodian people, who used to live with killing fields, starvation, work overload and torture, understand the worth of peace and political stability. The Minister Sok An referred to five hundred years of war in Cambodian history, saying that no one knows the hardship of Cambodians. However, Sok An said, only 12 years later Cambodia has achieved peace throughout the country with the Win- Win policy of Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen, which put an end to three decades of civil war. He added that the former genocidal leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime are under trial by the Cambodian-UN court in Cambodia. “Peace is what we need most, not only in Cambodia, but also in the world,” said Sok An. The Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An also urged the Cambodian people to learn peace-building and to reduce violence. “bRidges – dialogue TowaRds a CulTuRe of PeaCe” kiCks off By soy sopHea Prof. Aaron J. Ciechanover, a 2004 Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, Distinguished Research Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and a Member of the Advisory Board of the International Peace Foundation, said that knowledge originates from universities, adding that he has spent almost 45 years working in universities, studying protein subsistence in human blood. Proteins build up all living things: plants, animals and therefore us, humans. In the past few decades, biochemistry has come a long way towards explaining how cells produce all of the various proteins. But as to the breaking down of those proteins, not so many researchers were interested. 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. For their work, they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2004. Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose discovered that the cell functions as a highly efficient checking station where proteins are built up and broken down at a furious rate. The degradation is not indiscriminate, but takes place through a process that is controlled in detail, so that the proteins to be broken down at any moment are given a molecular label, or a ‘kiss of death’ to be dramatic. The labeled proteins are then fed into the cell’s “waste disposers”, the so-called proteasomes, where they are chopped into small pieces and destroyed. The “kiss of death” label consists of a molecule called ubiquitin. This fastens to the protein to be destroyed and accompanies it to the proteasome, where it is recognized and signals that a protein is on the way for disassembly. Shortly before the protein is squeezed into the proteasome, its ubiquitin label is disconnected for re-use. Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, Personal Advisor to the Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen and Secretary of State for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said that this series of dialogues is very important, not only for Cambodian society, but also the world. Dr. Kao, who is also President of the University of Cambodia, added that it is a great opportunity for Cambodian students to learn about the progress of human knowledge during the dialogue sessions. According to Dr. Kao there are nine Nobel Laureates who will come to lecture in Cambodia for the six-month program. Those figures include Aaron Ciechanover, 2004 Nobel Laureate for Chemistry; David Gross, 2004 Nobel Laureate for Physics; Eric Maskin, 2007 Nobel Laureate for Economics; Torsten Wiesel, 1981 Nobel Laureate for Medicine; Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, 2008 Nobel Laureate for Medicine; Jose Ramos-Horta, 1996 Nobel Laureate for Peace and President of East Timor; Vladimir Ashkenazy, classical pianist; actor Jackie Chan, known in Cambodia as Chen Long, and film director oliver Stone. Jackie Chan is scheduled to lecture in Cambodia on November 11 and is going to perform a live show with Southeast Television, according to Ms. Por Malis, Director of the of- fice of Administration at the University of Cambodia. Born in Haifa, Aaron Ciechanover received his Master of Science in 1970 and his M.D. in 1975 from the Hadassah Medical School of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He received his doctorate in medicine in 1981 from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and has been a Distinguished Research Professor at the Center for Cancer and Vascular Biology and the Director of the Rappaport Family Institute for Research in Medical Sciences. In 2004 he shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Professor Avram Hershko and Professor Irwin Rose for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation, a mechanism by which the cells of most living organisms cull unwanted proteins. (SEAW)