Ada Yonath

Ada Yonath

Ada E. Yonath,Hebrew: עדה יונת, (born June 22, 1939) is an Israelicrystallographer.She received the 2009Nobel PrizeinChemistrytogether withThomas A. SteitzandVenkatraman Ramakrishnanfor studies of the structure and function of theribosome.

Early life

She was born in the Geula quarter ofJerusalem.Her father was arabbi.Yonath and her family moved toTel Avivafter her father died.

Education

She received her bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1962. She received her master's degree in biochemistry in 1964. She got both degrees from theHebrew UniversityinJerusalem.She received her Ph.D. inX-Ray Crystallographyat theWeizmann Institute of Sciencein 1968. Yonath made the first protein crystallography lab at the Weizmann Institute. Her work showed the function of ribosomes. Yonath worked atCarnegie-Mellon UniversityandMITfor several years. She stayed as Weizmann Institute for the rest of her career.

Work

Ada Yonath is anIsraelichemistwho made pictures ofribosomesusingX-rayCrystallography.Ribosomes are the part of cells in thehuman bodythat put togetherproteins.X-ray Crystallography makes pictures ofmoleculesby bunching them into crystals. This method is only used to make models of singleatoms.Yonath used this methods to crystallize ribosomes although they are made of many atoms and proteins. This made her work very difficult. She returned to the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1970. She started the first Protein Crystallography lab in Israel. She did research at theMax PlanckInstitute for Molecular Genetics inBerlin,Germanyfrom 1979 to 1984. She began trying to make ribosomes into crystals in 1970.[1]

Accomplishments

She made the first model of a large ribosome in 1980.

In 2006 she won theWolf Prizein Chemistry.

She won the 2009Nobel Prizein Chemistry withVenkatraman RamakrishnanandThomas Steitz.This Nobel prize was for her work in making images of ribosomes. She studiedMolecularGeneticsinBerlin, Germany,before winning the Nobel prize.

Later life

Yonath led a research team at the Max Planck Institute inHamburg, Germanyfor 18 years. She also continued research at theWeizmann Institute of Science.

Related pages

• List of Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry