Ada E. Yonath (Hebrew: עדה יונת, pronounced [ˈada joˈnat]; born June 22, 1939) is an Israeli scientist who studies the structure of crystals and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She is best known for her important research on the structure of ribosomes, which are parts of cells that help make proteins. She currently leads the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

In 2009, Yonath shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz for their studies on the structure and function of ribosomes. She was the first Israeli woman to win the Nobel Prize among ten Israeli Nobel laureates, the first woman from the Middle East to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Biography

Ada Lifshitz (later Yonath) was born in the Geula quarter of Jerusalem. Her parents, Hillel and Esther Lifshitz, were Jewish people who supported the creation of Israel. They moved to British-controlled Palestine (now Israel) from Zduńska Wola, Poland, in 1933, before Israel was established. Her father was a rabbi and came from a family of rabbis. After arriving in Jerusalem, the family opened a grocery store but had trouble earning enough money. They lived in small, crowded homes with other families, and Yonath recalls that books were the only thing that kept her busy. Despite their difficult financial situation, her parents made sure she attended school in the wealthy Beit HaKerem neighborhood to help her get a good education. When her father died at the age of 42, the family moved to Tel Aviv.

Yonath was accepted into Tichon Hadash high school, but her mother could not afford the tuition. To help pay, Yonath taught math lessons to other students. As a young girl, she was inspired by the Polish and French scientist Marie Curie, but she explains that Curie was not her "role model." She returned to Jerusalem for college, earning a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1962 and a master’s degree in biochemistry in 1964. In 1968, she received her PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science for X-ray studies to understand the structure of collagen, with Wolfie Traub as her advisor.

She has one daughter, Hagit Yonath, who is a doctor at Sheba Medical Center, and a granddaughter named Noa. She is the cousin of Ruchama Marton, an activist who works against military occupation.

Scientific career

Adi Yonath held postdoctoral roles at Carnegie Mellon University in 1969 and MIT in 1970. During her time at MIT, she worked in the laboratory of William N. Lipscomb, Jr., a scientist who later won the 1976 Nobel Prize in Chemistry at Harvard University. There, she became interested in studying very large molecular structures.

In 1970, she created the only protein crystallography laboratory in Israel for nearly ten years. From 1979 to 1984, she led a research group with Heinz-Günter Wittmann at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin. She was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago from 1977 to 1978. Between 1986 and 2004, she directed a research unit at DESY in Hamburg, Germany, while also conducting research at the Weizmann Institute.

Yonath studies how proteins are made using ribosomal crystallography, a method she developed over twenty years ago despite doubts from other scientists. Ribosomes help convert RNA into proteins, and because they differ slightly between microbes and eukaryotic cells, like human cells, they are often targets for antibiotics. In 2000 and 2001, she mapped the complete, high-resolution structures of both parts of the ribosome. She discovered a symmetrical region within the ribosome that guides the process of forming proteins. This showed that the ribosome acts as a ribozyme, positioning molecules in a way that allows chemical reactions to form peptide bonds. In 1993, she identified the path taken by newly formed proteins through the ribosome, called the ribosomal tunnel. More recently, she explained how this tunnel helps control protein production, regulate cell processes, and direct proteins into their correct shapes.

Yonath also studied how more than twenty antibiotics interact with ribosomes, uncovered how bacteria resist these drugs, and explained how antibiotics work together or differ in effectiveness. Her research helped scientists design new drugs based on molecular structures.

To study ribosomes, Yonath developed a new technique called cryo-bio-crystallography. This method became standard in structural biology and made complex research projects possible.

At the Weizmann Institute, Yonath holds the Martin S. and Helen Kimmel Professorial Chair.

Political views

She has asked for the unconditional release of all Palestinian prisoners, stating that "keeping Palestinians in captivity keeps them motivated to harm Israel and its people… when there are no more prisoners to release, there will be no reason for soldiers to be kidnapped."

Awards and recognition

Adi Yonath is a member of several important scientific and academic organizations, including 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, October 18, 2014, Pope Francis named Professor Yonath an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

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 (shared with George Feher)
• In 2006, Rothschild Prize in Life Sciences
• In 2006, The EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture in Life Sciences (shared with Professor Peretz Lavie [Medicine] and Professor Eli Keshet [Biology])
• In 2007, Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (shared 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
• In 2009, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (shared with Thomas Steitz and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan). She was the first Israeli woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize.
• In 2010, Wilhelm Exner Medal
• In 2011, Marie Curie Medal awarded by the Polish Chemical Society
• In 2013, she became a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• In 2015, she received Honorary Doctorates from the University of Southern California, De La Salle University, Manila/Philippines; Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble/France; Medical University of Lodz, Lodz/Poland; and the University of Warwick, UK
• In 2018, she received an Honorary Doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University
• In 2020, she was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society
• In 2023, she received an Honorary Doctorate from the Jagiellonian University
• In 2024, she received an Honorary Doctorate from the Technion.