Award-winning Israeli chemist Ada Yonath dies aged 87
Nobel Prize-winning Israeli chemist Ada Yonath has passed away at the age of 87. She was renowned for her pioneering work in mapping the structure of ribosomes using X-ray crystallography, which significantly advanced the development of antibiotics.
Why it matters
Her research fundamentally changed our understanding of protein synthesis and provided critical insights for modern pharmaceutical development.
Professor Ada Yonath, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 and the Israel Prize in Chemistry in 2002, died on Monday at age 87.Born in Jerusalem, Yonath worked at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot's Structural Biology and Chemistry Department, where she led the Ribosome Group, according to the institute's website.A ribosome is a "tiny particle made up of RNA and proteins that specialize in protein synthesis and are found free or bound to the endoplasmic reticulum within cells," according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.She was the daughter of Polish immigrants, whose father tried to earn a living by running a grocery store, despite having qualifications as a rabbi, according to a biography on the Nobel Prize website.The Yonath family moved to Tel Aviv after her father passed away, and Ada studied chemistry at the bachelor's and master's levels at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating in 1962 and…
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