{"id":27,"date":"2020-08-12T11:42:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T15:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/wstem\/?p=27"},"modified":"2020-08-12T11:46:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T15:46:45","slug":"ada-yonath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/wstem\/2020\/08\/12\/ada-yonath\/","title":{"rendered":"Ada Yonath"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dr. Ada Yonath is known for her pioneering work on the structure of the ribosome, in which she won the 2009 Nobel Prize Award for, and developing a crystallography technique known as cryocrystallography.1<\/sup> Yonath describes her childhood memories as \u201ccentered on my father\u2019s medical conditions alongside my constant desire to understand the principles of the nature around me.\u201d She was born in June of 1939 in Jerusalem to a poor household, sharing a four-room apartment with two additional families. Despite the circumstances, her parents strived to provide Dr. Yonath with a good education, and supported her curiosity and intellect.2<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            At\nthe age of 11, Yonath\u2019s father passed away, and she took on many odd jobs to\nhelp support her mother, however it was a difficult time.3<\/sup> They moved to Tel Aviv in Israel\nto be closer to their family, where she completed her high school education.\nYonath later enrolled in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she received\nher degree in biochemistry and biophysics. She then carried out her doctoral\nwork at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, where she was studying the high-resolution\nstructure of collagen. After her PhD, she started her postdoctoral work at\nCarnegie Mellon University, but later moved to MIT where she studied protein\nstaphylococcus nuclease.2<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She\nlater returned to the Weizmann Institute in 1970, but this time, as a young\nresearcher with an ambitious plan. Yonath wanted to determine the 3-D structure\nof a ribosome, a feat not yet accomplished in the field of biochemistry. She\nwould accomplish this using a technique known as X-ray crystallography. This\ntechnique involves shooting a material with X-rays, which diffract in different\ndirections and intensities. The scattering of these beams can be measured to elucidate the\nstructure. She describes that this was an endeavor that took close to two\ndecades, and she was faced with negative opinions and ridicule from the\nscientific community. She stated \u201cI became the\nWorld\u2019s dreamer, the village fool, the so-called scientist, and the person\ndriven by fantasies.\u201d2<\/sup> However, Yonath was motivated\nand continued with her ribosome research, partnering with Prof. Whittmann\nat the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Germany in mid-1980s. The\nribosome is complex of proteins and RNA chains, something scientists dedicated\nyears trying to understand. It was incredibly difficult to form the crystals\nnecessary for X-ray crystallography due to its intricate, flexible, and asymmetric\nnature.2<\/sup> She stated that after the\nfirst indication of crystals, the potential for structure elucidation was not\ndetected until four years later. Two years after that, they discovered that the\nirradiation decomposed the crystals.3<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            However,\nthis lead to what Yonath describes as her biggest contribution to science, the\ndevelopment of cryocrystallography, where protein crystals are subjected to\nextremely low temperatures of -185 \u00baC,\nand therefore are not degraded by the radiation damage.1<\/sup> Once they published this\nmethod, suddenly Yonath and her collaborators were no longer the only ones\nworking on elucidating the ribosomal structure, as others were using the\nprocedures in a parallel effort. Yonath and coworkers were, however, the first\nto publish the 3-D structures of both subunits of the bacterial ribosome in\n2000 and 2001. The gravity of this discovery is important, as the elucidation\nof this structure paves the path towards understanding how antibiotic drugs\nwork in the ribosomal subunit, giving rise to improving or designing novel drugs.2<\/sup>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Prof. Ada Yonath received numerous awards and honors for her discovery. She was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize (the fourth female to win this award in chemistry!), the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry in 2005, the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize in 2007, and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science in 2008.1<\/sup> Yonath still is an active principle investigator at the Weizmann Institute, continuing her research to understand the mechanisms of antibiotics and ribosomes.  When asked what qualities it takes to be a good scientist she states: \u201cCuriosity, first. Second, curiosity. And third, curiosity!\u201d3<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by Magenta Hensinger<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edited by Rebecca Bogart<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.         Rogers,\nK. Ada Yonath. https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Ada-Yonath<\/a>\n(accessed July 28).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.         Ada E. Yonath \u2013 Biographical. https:\/\/www.nobelprize.org\/prizes\/chemistry\/2009\/yonath\/biographical\/<\/a>\n(accessed July 28).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.         Yonath,\nA. E., Ada E. Yonath: \u201cThe challenge of science is like climbing Mount\nEverest\u201d. Nolan, C., Ed. The UNESCO Courier.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Ada Yonath is known for her pioneering work on the structure of the ribosome, in which she won the 2009 Nobel Prize Award for, and developing a crystallography technique known as cryocrystallography.1 Yonath describes her childhood memories as \u201ccentered on my father\u2019s medical conditions alongside my constant desire to understand the principles of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[649389],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical-women-scientists"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"wstem","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/wstem\/author\/wstem\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/wstem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/wstem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/wstem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/wstem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/wstem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/wstem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/wstem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/30"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/wstem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/wstem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/wstem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}