Professor Ada Yonath passed away at the age of 87
Yonath was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 for her research on ribosomes. She worked for many years at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and was a recipient of the Israel Prize.
Professor Ada Yonath passed away on Monday at the age of 87. Yonath was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 for her research on ribosomes, having presented groundbreaking findings in the mid-90s. She worked for many years at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and was a recipient of the Israel Prize.
The President of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Professor Alon Chen, paid tribute to her:
"Ada was an extraordinary scientist who was not afraid to choose a path that others thought impossible and to walk it with determination, curiosity, and courage for decades. Her breakthrough in ribosome research changed our understanding of one of the most fundamental processes of life and opened new possibilities for fighting antibiotic resistance."
President Isaac Herzog also paid tribute to her memory:
"Her groundbreaking discoveries changed the face of science and brought immense honor to the State of Israel. Professor Yonath was able to realize her aspirations while serving as an inspiration to many. We will remember her for her modesty, the originality of her thinking, and for being a role model and inspiration for generations of scientists in Israel and around the world."
"I want to do something that will contribute to Israel and humanity, to increase the positive approach to science," Professor Ada Yonath used to say.
Childhood and academic studies
Yonath was born in Jerusalem in 1939 under the name Ada Lifshitz and grew up in the Geula neighborhood. Her father immigrated from Poland, was a descendant of a rabbinical dynasty, and managed a local grocery store with her mother. When she was 11, Yonath lost her father and began helping the family with the financial burden. "My mother couldn't cope with the situation, and I had all kinds of jobs - cleaning, babysitting, and private lessons," she said about her childhood.
Due to economic difficulties, the family moved to Tel Aviv, where Yonath studied at the Tichon Hadash high school. Yonath performed her military service in the Medical Corps, where she was exposed to various clinical and medical problems, which led her to enroll in chemistry studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She completed her doctoral studies with honors at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Afterward, she went for postdoctoral studies at the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh and at MIT. At the end of the 70s, Yonath returned to Israel and to the Weizmann Institute, where she established the first biological crystallography laboratory in Israel.
Ribosome research
Yonath became famous for her research on the structure of the ribosome - a structure in the cell responsible for creating proteins. To research the subject, she used X-ray crystallography. "At the end of the 70s, I was a young researcher at the Weizmann Institute with an ambitious plan to shed light on one of the central questions concerning living cells: the process of protein biosynthesis," Yonath said. "I wanted to determine the three-dimensional structure of the ribosome - the 'factory' where the instructions for producing cells are written, instructions that are passed in the genetic code in proteins."
For years, the scientific community was not kind to Yonath. "It was a long journey that lasted more than two decades, during which I encountered reactions of disbelief and even mockery from scientists around the world. I can compare this journey to climbing Mount Everest, only to discover that there is a much higher Everest." In an interview with TheMarker, Yonath said that it was precisely in Israel that they believed in her potential: "The Weizmann Institute allowed me to work and research the field even when my colleagues in the world thought I was a fantasist. It was here that they believed in me and allowed me to continue."
Scientific breakthrough and Nobel Prize
In the mid-90s, Yonath managed to refine her research method. "During my research, I developed new research techniques that are now widely used in laboratories around the world. One of them is cryo-bio-crystallography, which involves exposing crystals to extremely low temperatures - minus 185 degrees Celsius, in order to minimize the disintegration of the crystalline structure under X-rays." In 2001, Yonath's findings were published in the journal Nature.
In December 2009, Yonath was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, alongside Thomas Steitz and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan. "The announcement of the Nobel Prize exposed the ribosomes to the public. It sparked real scientific interest and ignited the imagination of many young people," she shared. "For all scientists, the most important thing is the scientific discovery. I thought I would die before there was a discovery, but as I was happy to discover, these predictions were wrong - the ribosomes are alive and kicking, and so am I."
