Ada Yonath 2050555 218596069 2008-06-11T10:20:34Z 163.1.16.43 /* Biography */ {{Infobox Scientist |image = Replace this image female.svg <!-- only free-content images are allowed for depicting living people - see [[WP:NONFREE]] --> |image_width = 150px | | name = Ada E. Yonath | birth_date = 22 June 1939 | birth_place = [[Jerusalem]] | residence = [[Israel]] | nationality = Israeli | field = [[Crystallography]] | work_institution = [[Weizmann Institute of Science]] | alma_mater = [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]], [[Weizmann Institute of Science]] | doctoral_advisor = | known_for = Cryo bio-crystallography | prizes = [[Wolf Prize in Chemistry]] (2006), [[L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science|L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science]](2008). | footnotes = }} '''Ada E. Yonath''' (b. [[22 June]] [[1939]] in [[Jerusalem]]) is an [[Israel]]i [[crystallography|crystallographer]] best known for her pioneering work on the structure of [[ribosome]]. She is the current director of the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly of the [[Weizmann Institute of Science]] and was a co-recipient (along [[George Feher]]) of the 2006 [[Wolf Prize in Chemistry]] "for ingenious structural discoveries of the ribosomal machinery of peptide-bond formation and the light-driven primary processes in photosynthes." ==Biography== Ada Yonath graduated with a bachelor's degree in [[Chemistry]] (1962) and a master's degree in [[Biochemistry]] (1964) from the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] and earned a Ph.D. in [[X-Ray]] Crystallography at the [[Weizmann Institute of Science]] (1968). She has also accepted postdoctoral positions at the [[Carnegie Mellon University]] (1969) and [[MIT]] (1970). In 1970 she established what was for nearly a decade the only protein crystallography laboratory in Israel. After returning from a [[sabbatical]] year at the [[University of Chicago]], she headed a [[Max-Planck Institute]] Research Unit in [[Hamburg]], [[Germany]] (1986 - 2004) in parallel to her research activities at the Weizmann Institute. At the Weizmann Institute, Yonath is the incumbent of the Martin S. and Helen Kimmel Professorial Chair. Yonath has a sister, a daughter, and a granddaughter (Noa). ==Career== 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. 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]]. Two decades ago 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 [[antibiotic]]s targeting the ribosome, illuminated mechanisms of [[drug resistance]] and [[drug synergy|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.<ref>Hope, H., Frolow, F., von Bohlen, K., Makowski, I., Kratky, C., Halfon, Y., Danz, H., Webster, P., Bartels, K. S., Wittmann, H. G. & Yonath, A. (1989). Acta Cryst. B45, 190-199. {{Doi|10.1107/S0108768188013710}}</ref> ==Awards== Yonath is a member of the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|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]]. Her awards and honors include the [[Wolf Prize in Chemistry]], [[Israel Prize]], the first European Crystallography Prize (in 2000), NIH Certificate of Distinction, the [[Harvey Prize]], the [[Kilby Prize]], the Cotton Medal of the US Chemical Society, the Anfinsen Award of the International Protein Society, the Zurich University's Paul Karrer Gold Medal, the University of Southern California's Massry Award and Medal, the Datta Medal of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies, the Fritz Lipmann Award of the German Biochemical Society, the [[Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize]] from [[Columbia University]] and a [[L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science|L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science]]. ==References== {{Reflist}} {{Wolf Prize in Chemistry}} ==External links== * [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] {{DEFAULTSORT:Yonath, Ada}} [[Category:Biochemists]] [[Category:Members of the National Academy of Sciences]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Women biologists]] [[Category:Wolf Prize in Chemistry laureates]] [[Category:Israel Prize recipients]] [[Category:1939 births]] [[Category:Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts]] [[Category:L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates]] [[de:Ada Yonath]] [[es:Ada Yonath]] [[he:עדה יונת]]