Ada Yonath

{{Infobox scientist

| native_name_lang = he

| image = Ada Yonath 2013 January CHF.jpg

| caption = Yonath in 2013

| image_size = 200px

| name = Ada E. Yonath

| native_name = עדה יונת

| birth_name = Ada Lifshitz

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1939|6|22|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine

| citizenship = Israeli

| field = Crystallography

| work_institution = Weizmann Institute of Science
University of Chicago

| education = {{ubl|Hebrew University of Jerusalem|Weizmann Institute of Science}}

| doctoral_advisor = Wolfie Traub, F. Albert Cotton

| known_for = Cryo bio-crystallography

| prizes = Harvey Prize (2002)
Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2006)
L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science (2008)
Albert Einstein World Award of Science (2008)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009)

| footnotes =

}}

Ada E. Yonath ({{langx|he|עדה יונת}}, {{IPA|he|ˈada joˈnat|pron}}; born 22 June 1939){{Cite web| title = Israel Prize Official Site (in Hebrew) – Recipient's C.V. | url = http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashsab/AdaYonat/KorotHaimPropesorAdaYonat.htm}} is an Israeli crystallographer and Nobel laureate in Chemistry, best 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,{{cite news|url=http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=156872|title=Nobel Prize Winner 'Happy, Shocked'|last=Lappin|first=Yaakov|date=7 October 2009|work=Jerusalem Post|access-date = 7 October 2009}} the first woman from the Middle East to win a Nobel prize in the sciences,{{cite book |last=Klenke |first=Karin |title=Women in Leadership: Contextual Dynamics and Boundaries |publisher=Emerald Group Publishing Limited |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-85724-561-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eJ16kb4sgS8C&pg=PA191 |page=191}} and the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.{{cite web | title=Transcript of the telephone interview with Ada E. Yonath immediately following the announcement of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry | website=nobelprize.org | date=6 October 2015 | url=http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/yonath-telephone.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006143911/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/yonath-telephone.html | archive-date=6 October 2015 | url-status=dead | access-date=9 March 2021}}

Biography

Ada Lifshitz (later Yonath){{cite web|url=http://www.syaga.co.il/essays/borer.pdf|title=מנכ"ל המדינה (p. 4; 18.11.09 "ידיעות אחרונות") PDF|website=syaga.co.il|access-date=2011-10-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425050143/http://www.syaga.co.il/essays/borer.pdf|archive-date=2012-04-25|url-status=dead}} was born in the Geula quarter of Jerusalem.{{cite news|url=http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546432149&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull |title=Ada Yonath— L'Oréal-UNESCO Award |date=8 March 2008 |work=Jerusalem Post|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117223623/http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546432149&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull |archive-date=17 January 2012 }} Her parents, Hillel and Esther Lifshitz, were Zionist Jews who immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel) from Zduńska Wola, Poland in 1933 before the establishment of Israel.{{cite book | last1=Hargittai | first1=I. | last2=Hargittai | first2=M. | title=Candid Science VI: More Conversations with Famous Scientists | publisher=Imperial College Press | year=2006 | isbn=978-1-86094-885-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uYAkWldKpx8C&pg=PA390 | access-date=9 March 2021 | page=390}} (In this source the surname is spelled Livshitz) Her father was a rabbi and came from a rabbinical family. They settled in Jerusalem and ran a grocery, but found it difficult to make ends meet. They lived in cramped quarters with several other families, and Yonath remembers "books" being the only thing she had to keep her occupied.Talk given at Moriah College, Sydney, 18 February 2010 as noted by a student present from James Ruse Agricultural High School Despite their poverty, her parents sent her to school in the upscale Beit HaKerem neighborhood to assure her a good education. When her father died at the age of 42, the family moved to Tel Aviv.{{cite news|url= http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Israel+beyond+politics/Israeli+professor+receives+Life+Work+Prize+for+women+in+science+28-Jul-2008.htm|title= Israeli professor receives Life's Work Prize for women in science|date= 28 July 2008|publisher= Ministry of Foreign Affairs|access-date= 31 July 2008|archive-date= 29 March 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190329195114/http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Israel+beyond+politics/Israeli+professor+receives+Life+Work+Prize+for+women+in+science+28-Jul-2008.htm|url-status= dead}}

Yonath was accepted to Tichon Hadash high school although her mother could not pay the tuition. She gave math lessons to students in return.{{cite web | last=Siegel-Itzkovich | first=Judy | title=Former 'village fool' takes the prize – Science and Environment – Jerusalem Post | website=fr.jpost.com | date=17 January 2012 | url=http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546432149&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117223623/http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546432149&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull | archive-date=17 January 2012 | url-status=dead | access-date=9 March 2021}} As a youngster, she says she was inspired by the Polish and naturalized-French scientist Marie Curie.{{cite web|url=https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-scientist-wins-nobel-prize-in-chemistry-2/|title=ISRAEL21c – Uncovering Israel|work=Israel21c |date=5 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624034236/http://www.israel21c.org/israeli-scientist-wins-nobel-prize-in-chemistry-2/ |archive-date=24 June 2016}} However, she stresses that Curie, whom she as a child was fascinated by after reading her biography, was not her "role model".Talk given at Moriah College, 18 February 2010 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.{{cite journal|url=http://journals.iucr.org/j/issues/2000/04/00/es0287/index.html|title=(IUCr) European Crystallography Prize|journal=Journal of Applied Crystallography|date=August 2000|volume=33|issue=4|pages=1195|doi=10.1107/S0021889800008281|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|last1=Traub|first1=Wolfie|last2=Yonath|first2=Ada|title=Polymers of Tripeptides as Collagen Models .I. X-RAY Studies of Poly (L-PROLYL-GLYCYL-L-PROLINE) and related Polytripeptides|journal=Journal of Molecular Biology|date=1966|volume=16|issue=2|pages=404–14|doi=10.1016/S0022-2836(66)80182-1|pmid=5954171}}{{cite journal|last1=Yonath|first1=Ada|last2=Traub|first2=Wolfie|title=Polymers of Tripeptides as Collagen Models .4. Structure Analysis of Poly (L-PROLYL-GLYCYL-L-PROLINE)|journal=Journal of Molecular Biology|date=1969|volume=43|issue=3|pages=461–77|doi=10.1016/0022-2836(69)90352-0|pmid=5401228}}

She has one daughter, Hagit Yonath, a doctor at Sheba Medical Center, and a granddaughter, Noa.{{cite web | last=Ilani | first=Ofri | title=Israel's Prof. Ada Yonath wins Nobel Prize for Chemistry – Haaretz – Israel News | website=haaretz.com | date=3 December 2009 | url=http://www.haaretz.com:80/hasen/spages/1119626.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091203104630/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1119626.html | archive-date=3 December 2009 | url-status=dead | access-date=9 March 2021 }} She is the cousin of anti-occupation activist Ruchama Marton.[http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546432149&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull Former 'village fool' takes the prize] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117223623/http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546432149&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull |date=17 January 2012 }}, Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, The Jerusalem Post 8 March 2008

Scientific career

File:Ada Yonath Weizmann Institute of Science.jpg]]

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.

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.{{cite web|url=https://news.uchicago.edu/news.php?asset_id=1729|title=New chemistry Nobelist was UChicago visiting prof, conducted research at Argonne|author=anonymous|work=uchicago.edu|access-date=2017-11-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610040216/http://news.uchicago.edu/news.php?asset_id=1729|archive-date=2010-06-10|url-status=dead}} She headed a Max-Planck Institute Research Unit at DESY in Hamburg, Germany (1986–2004) in parallel to her research 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.{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/speedread.html|title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009 – Speed Read|work=nobelprize.org}} 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.{{cite journal | last1=Hope | first1=H. | last2=Frolow | first2=F. | last3=von Böhlen | first3=K. | last4=Makowski | first4=I. | last5=Kratky | first5=C. | last6=Halfon | first6=Y. | last7=Danz | first7=H. | last8=Webster | first8=P. | last9=Bartels | first9=K. S. | last10=Wittmann | first10=H. G. | last11=Yonath | first11=A. | title=Cryocrystallography of ribosomal particles | journal=Acta Crystallographica Section B: Structural Science | publisher=International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) | volume=45 | issue=2 | date=1 April 1989 | issn=0108-7681 | doi=10.1107/s0108768188013710 | pages=190–199| pmid=2619959 | bibcode=1989AcCrB..45..190H }}

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 Palestinian 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".[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1120041.html Israeli Nobel Laureate calls for release of all Hamas prisoners] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100208000135/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1120041.html |date=8 February 2010 }}, Haaretz 10 October 2009

Awards and recognition

File:Announcement Nobelprize Chemistry 2009-6.ogv

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.{{cite web|url=http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2014/10/18/0767/01629.html|title=Rinunce e nomine|work=vatican.va |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022070515/http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2014/10/18/0767/01629.html |archive-date=22 October 2014 |language=it}}

Her awards and honors include the following:

In 2002, Israel 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.{{Cite web|title=Albert Einstein World Award of Science 2008 |url=http://www.consejoculturalmundial.org/winners-science-adayonath.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304234700/http://www.consejoculturalmundial.org/winners-science-adayonath.php |archive-date=4 March 2014 }}
In 2009, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (co-recipient with Thomas Steitz and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan).{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/|title=Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009|publisher=Nobel Foundation|access-date = 7 October 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091010063802/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/| archive-date= 10 October 2009 | url-status= live}} She was the first Israeli woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize.{{cite news|url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/chaitech/item/ada_yonath_--_first_israeli_woman_to_win_nobel_prize_20091007/|title=Ada Yonath—First Israeli Woman to win Nobel Prize|last=Wills|first=Adam|date=7 October 2009|publisher=Jewish Journal|access-date=7 October 2009|archive-date=22 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422153441/http://www.jewishjournal.com/chaitech/item/ada_yonath_--_first_israeli_woman_to_win_nobel_prize_20091007/|url-status=dead}}
In 2010, Wilhelm Exner Medal{{cite web | title=Medalists Archive – ALL MEDALISTS SINCE 1921 | website=Wilhelm Exner Medaillen Stiftung | url=https://www.wilhelmexner.org/medalists/ | language=en | access-date=9 March 2021}}
In 2011, Marie Curie Medal awarded by the Polish Chemical Society{{Cite web|url=https://ptchem.pl/pl/honors/winners-of-the-medals-and-ptchem-awards|title=Laureaci Medali i Nagród PTChem |access-date=2020-02-22}}
In 2013 she became a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.{{cite web |title= Ada Yonath |url=https://www.leopoldina.org/mitgliederverzeichnis/mitglieder/member/Member/show/ada-yonath/|publisher=German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina |access-date=26 May 2021}}
In 2015, she was awarded Honorary Doctorates from the University of Southern California,{{Cite web |title=Past Recipients – Honorary Degrees |url=https://honorarydegrees.usc.edu/past-recipients/ |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=honorarydegrees.usc.edu}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/gov/hongrads/summer2015|title=Honorary Graduand Orations – Summer 2015|website=www2.warwick.ac.uk}}{{Cite web|title = Uniwersytet Medyczny w Łodzi|url = http://www.umed.pl/pl/index1.php?dir=akt&mn=tresc&txt=1750|website = www.umed.pl|access-date = 1 May 2015|archive-date = 4 March 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304115917/http://www.umed.pl/pl/index1.php?dir=akt&mn=tresc&txt=1750|url-status = dead}}
In 2018, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University{{Cite web|url=https://www.cmu.edu/leadership/president/campus-comms/2018/2018-03-29.html|title=Commencement Speakers and Honorary Degree Recipients – Leadership – Carnegie Mellon University|website=www.cmu.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-09-21}}
In 2020, she was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society{{cite web|url=https://royalsociety.org/people/Ada-Yonath-25413/|title=Ada Yonath|publisher=Royal Society|access-date= 19 September 2020}}
In 2023, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Jagiellonian University.{{Cite web |url=https://en.uj.edu.pl/en_GB/about-university/ju-awards/honorary-doctorate |title=Honorary Doctorate |website=en.uj.edu.pl |access-date=28 May 2023}}

References

{{reflist|refs=

Yarnell, A. [http://www.cendigital.org/cendigital/20091130/?pm=1&zin=167&u1=texterity&sub_id=CfeTJHo0DsdyY&pg=45#pg45 Lipscomb Feted in Honor of his 90th Birthday] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714193245/http://www.cendigital.org/cendigital/20091130/?pm=1&zin=167&u1=texterity&sub_id=CfeTJHo0DsdyY&pg=45#pg45 |date=14 July 2014 }}. Chemical and Engineering News, 87, 48, Am. Chem. Soc., p. 35, 30 November 2009.

}}

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20090507080305/http://www.aps.anl.gov/News/APS_News/Content/APS_NEWS_20070111B.php "APS user shares the “Israeli Nobel” for chemistry"], from the Argonne National Laboratory Advanced Photon Source (APS), United States Department of Energy
[http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/horwitz/ The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize]
[http://www.weizmann.ac.il/sb/faculty_pages/Yonath/home.html Weizmann Institute of Science, Yonath-Site]
[https://oa.mg/author/A287919848 Ada Yonath's Publication list]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140222230558/http://www.innovaxiom.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=167786 Talk of Ada Yonath at the Origins 2011 congress]
{{Nobelprize|name=Ada E. Yonath}}