How Ada Yonath’s determination affected Crystallography, Biochemistry, and the world of Antibiotics.
Ada Yonath went through years of hard work to map the ribosome’s structure, leading to even greater findings.
Photo: Miguel Lorenzo
Written by Sara Pereira
Ribosomes are structures within cells that are crucial to the production of protein and therefore important to the survival of a cell. Before the success of Ada Yonath, scientists’ information on ribosomes was limited because of their small size, instability, and lack of symmetry.
Ada Yonath was born in 1939 to poor parents who emigrated from Poland to Jerusalem. All her family had was one room in an apartment that was shared with two other families. Although her family’s situation meant disadvantages for her education, they supported her and were able to get Ada Yonath into a high-ranked grammar school. Her mother described Yonath as a curious and ambitious girl when she was younger. Unfortunately, her father passed away when she was eleven years old. Nonetheless, Yonath would help her mother by cleaning and babysitting while keeping up with her schoolwork. Her family moved to Tel Aviv soon after, and there she tutored other students in chemistry and math.
A simplified model of a ribosome molecule. Nobel Prize Museum
Ada Yonath earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry and her master’s degree in biochemistry at Hebrew University. Then, she got her PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science after studying X-ray crystallography. In the late 1970s, she decided to specifically study the site of protein synthesis, the ribosome. Molecule structures are typically found through X-ray crystallography, however many scientists thought this technique would be impossible with the ribosome because of its shape. Despite other’s claims that the structure of a ribosome couldn’t be found, Yonath started dedicating herself to the research. She found tunnel-like structures through which synthesized polypeptide chains passed through. She even found a way to crystallize a thermophile bacteria called “Geobacillus stearothermophilus”.
After discovering the structure of ribosomes, Yonath developed a new technique in crystallography. This method was Cyro bio-crystallography, where crystals were blasted at -185 degrees to protect the crystalline structure before X-raying.
Ada Yonath with x-ray diffraction equipment. Micheline Pelletier/Corbis
Yonath’s studies later led her to antibiotics and their functions because of how they connect to ribosomes. Her research in this field impacted the way antibiotics have been developed since ribosomes are their major bacterial target. In 2009, she won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for “studies of the structure and function of the ribosome”. Some other awards Yonath received include the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biochemistry in 2005 and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science in 2008. Now, she is focused on antibiotic resistance and the beginning of the ribosome. She researches the start of all life to understand how ribosomes made proteins in the first place. Yonath never lost her sense of curiosity and desire to uncover what seems unrealistic. Her studies, whether it was at her university or now after winning a Nobel Prize, continue to influence various fields of science.
Sources
“Ada Yonath.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Ada-Yonath. Accessed 10 Jan. 2024.
“The Nobel Prize: Women Who Changed Science: Ada Yonath.” The Official Website of the Nobel Prize - NobelPrize.Org, www.nobelprize.org/womenwhochangedscience/stories/ada-yonath. Accessed 10 Jan. 2024.
“The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009.” NobelPrize.Org, www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2009/yonath/facts/. Accessed 10 Jan. 2024.
