Professor Ashraf Brik of the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology is the 2026 recipient of the Max Bergmann Medal, awarded by Germany's Max Bergmann Kreis. The citation honors his pioneering contributions to site-specific protein modification.
Brik holds the Jordan and Irene Tark Academic Chair in the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry. His group develops chemistry for the total synthesis and semisynthesis of proteins that carry defined posttranslational modifications, among them ubiquitinated, phosphorylated, and glycosylated proteins, and uses these homogeneous materials in structural, biochemical, and functional studies. A second line of work designs small-molecule, peptide, and peptidomimetic modulators of enzymes such as the deubiquitinases.
The Kreis has presented the medal since 1980 at its annual Max Bergmann Conference, held this year October 4–7 at Kloster Seeon in Bavaria. The roll of recipients begins with Leonidas Zervas and includes Philip Dawson, 2011, who co-advised Brik's doctoral work at Scripps, along with Richard DiMarchi, 2015, Hiroaki Suga, 2016, Ronald Raines, 2019, and Helma Wennemers, 2025.
The medal continues a notable run. Brik received the European Peptide Society's Leonidas Zervas Award and was elected to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 2024, and in 2025 he received the American Peptide Society's Vincent du Vigneaud Award. He has been an APS member since 2009.
The Society congratulates Professor Brik on this recognition.
