Ada Yonath

Ada E. Yonath (Hebrew: ‫עדה יונת‬, pronounced [ˈada

joˈnat]; born 22 June 1939)[1] is an Israeli Ada E. Yonath
crystallographer and Nobel laureate in Chemistry, best ‫עדה יונת‬
known for her pioneering work on the structure of
ribosomes. She is the current director of the Helen and
Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular
Structure and Assembly of the Weizmann Institute of
Science.

In 2009, Yonath received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A.
Steitz for her studies on the structure and function of
the ribosome, becoming the first Israeli woman to win
the Nobel Prize out of ten Israeli Nobel laureates,[2] Yonath in 2013
the first woman from the Middle East to win a Nobel
Born Ada Lifshitz
prize in the sciences,[3] and the first woman in 45 years
22 June 1939
to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.[4]
Jerusalem, British Mandate of
Palestine (now in Israel)
Citizenship Israeli
Biography
Alma mater Hebrew University of
Ada Lifshitz (later Yonath)[5] was born in the Geula Jerusalem
[6]
quarter of Jerusalem. Her parents, Hillel and Esther Weizmann Institute of Science
Lifshitz, were Zionist Jews who immigrated to the
Known for Cryo bio-crystallography
British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel) from
Zduńska Wola, Poland in 1933 before the Awards Harvey Prize (2002)

establishment of Israel.[7] Her father was a rabbi and Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2006)
came from a rabbinical family. They settled in L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for
Jerusalem and ran a grocery, but found it difficult to Women in Science (2008)
make ends meet. They lived in cramped quarters with Albert Einstein World Award of
Science (2008)
several other families, and Yonath remembers "books"
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
being the only thing she had to keep her occupied.[8]
(2009)
Despite their poverty, her parents sent her to school in
the upscale Beit HaKerem neighborhood to assure her Scientific career
a good education. When her father died at the age of Fields Crystallography
42, the family moved to Tel Aviv.[9] Institutions Weizmann Institute of Science
University of Chicago
Yonath was accepted to Tichon Hadash high school
although her mother could not pay the tuition. She Doctoral Wolfie Traub, F. Albert Cotton
gave math lessons to students in return.[10] As a advisor
youngster, she says she was inspired by the Polish and
naturalized-French scientist Marie Curie.[11] However, she stresses that Curie, whom she as a child was
fascinated by after reading her biography, was not her "role model".[12] She returned to Jerusalem for
college, graduating from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in
1962, and a master's degree in biochemistry in 1964. In 1968, she obtained her PhD from the Weizmann
Institute of Science for X-ray crystallographic studies on the structure of collagen, with Wolfie Traub as
her PhD advisor.[13][14][15]

She has one daughter, Hagit Yonath, a doctor at Sheba Medical Center, and a granddaughter, Noa.[16] She
is the cousin of anti-occupation activist Ruchama Marton.[17]

Scientific career
Yonath accepted postdoctoral positions at Carnegie Mellon
University (1969) and MIT (1970). While a postdoc at MIT she
spent some time in the lab of subsequent 1976 chemistry Nobel
Prize winner William N. Lipscomb, Jr. of Harvard University
where she was inspired to pursue very large structures.[18]

In 1970, she established what was for nearly a decade the only
protein crystallography laboratory in Israel. Then, from 1979 to
1984 she was a group leader with Heinz-Günter Wittmann at the
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin. She was
visiting professor at the University of Chicago in 1977–78.[19] She
headed a Max-Planck Institute Research Unit at DESY in Ada Yonath at the Weizmann
Hamburg, Germany (1986–2004) in parallel to her research Institute of Science
activities at the Weizmann Institute.

Yonath focuses on the mechanisms underlying protein biosynthesis, by ribosomal crystallography, a

research line she pioneered over twenty years ago despite considerable skepticism of the international
scientific community.[20] Ribosomes translate RNA into protein and because they have slightly different
structures in microbes, when compared to eukaryotes, such as human cells, they are often a target for
antibiotics. In 2000 and 2001, she determined the complete high-resolution structures of both ribosomal
subunits and discovered within the otherwise asymmetric ribosome, the universal symmetrical region that
provides the framework and navigates the process of polypeptide polymerization. Consequently, she
showed that the ribosome is a ribozyme that places its substrates in stereochemistry suitable for peptide
bond formation and for substrate-mediated catalysis. In 1993 she visualized the path taken by the nascent
proteins, namely the ribosomal tunnel, and recently revealed the dynamics elements enabling its
involvement in elongation arrest, gating, intra-cellular regulation and nascent chain trafficking into their
folding space.

Additionally, Yonath elucidated the modes of action of over twenty different antibiotics targeting the
ribosome, illuminated mechanisms of drug resistance and synergism, deciphered the structural basis for
antibiotic selectivity and showed how it plays a key role in clinical usefulness and therapeutic
effectiveness, thus paving the way for structure-based drug design.
For enabling ribosomal crystallography Yonath introduced a novel technique, cryo bio-crystallography,
which became routine in structural biology and allowed intricate projects otherwise considered
formidable.[21]

At the Weizmann Institute, Yonath is the incumbent of the Martin S. and Helen Kimmel Professorial
Chair.

Political Views
She has called for the unconditional release of all Hamas prisoners, saying that "holding Palestinians
captive encourages and perpetuates their motivation to harm Israel and its citizens ... once we don't have
any prisoners to release they will have no reason to kidnap soldiers".[22]

Awards and recognition

Yonath is a member of the United States National Academy of
Sciences; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Israel
Academy of Sciences and Humanities; the European Academy of
Sciences and Art and the European Molecular Biology
Organization. On Saturday, 18 October 2014, Professor Yonath
was named an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of
Sciences by Pope Francis.[23]

Her awards and honors include the following:

Telephone interview with Ada
In 2002, Israel Prize Yonath during the announcement of
the Nobel Prize
In 2002, Harvey Prize
In 2004, Massry Prize
In 2004, Paul Karrer Gold Medal
In 2005, Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize
In 2006, Wolf Prize in Chemistry along with George Feher.
In 2006, Rothschild Prize in Life Sciences.
In 2006, The EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture in Life Sciences, along with Professor
Peretz Lavie (Medicine) and Professor Eli Keshet (Biology)
In 2007, Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize along with Harry Noller
In 2008, the Albert Einstein World Award of Science for her pioneering contributions to
protein biosynthesis in the field of ribosomal crystallography and her introduction of
innovative techniques in cryo bio-crystallography.[24]
In 2009, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (co-recipient with Thomas Steitz and Venkatraman
Ramakrishnan).[25] She was the first Israeli woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize.[26]
In 2010, Wilhelm Exner Medal[27]
In 2011, Marie Curie Medal awarded by the Polish Chemical Society[28]
In 2013 she became a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.[29]
In 2015, she was awarded Honorary Doctorates from the University of Southern
California,[30] the De La Salle University, Manila/Philippines; the Joseph Fourier University,
 Grenoble/France; the Medical University of Lodz, Lodz/Poland; and the University of
Warwick, UK.[31][32]
In 2018, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University[33]
In 2020, she was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society[34]
In 2023, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Jagiellonian University.[35]

See also
Women of Israel
History of RNA biology
List of Israel Prize recipients
List of female Nobel laureates
List of Israeli Nobel laureates
List of Jewish Nobel laureates
List of peace activists
List of RNA biologists
Timeline of women in science
Women in chemistry

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External links
"APS user shares the “Israeli Nobel” for chemistry" (https://web.archive.org/web/200905070
80305/http://www.aps.anl.gov/News/APS_News/Content/APS_NEWS_20070111B.php),
from the Argonne National Laboratory Advanced Photon Source (APS), United States
Department of Energy
The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/horwitz/)
Weizmann Institute of Science, Yonath-Site (http://www.weizmann.ac.il/sb/faculty_pages/Yo
nath/home.html)
Ada Yonath's Publication list (https://oa.mg/author/A287919848)
Talk of Ada Yonath at the Origins 2011 congress (https://web.archive.org/web/20140222230
558/http://www.innovaxiom.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=167786)
Ada E. Yonath (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/843) on Nobelprize.org

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