The biochemist is the first Israeli woman to win the prize.
Prof. Ada Yonath will receive the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry in Stockholm today. The biochemist from the Weizmann Institute of Science is the first Israeli woman to win the Nobel Prize and the ninth Israeli to win the prestigious award.
After 30 years of research, Yonath is winning the Nobel Prize for her work on the ribosome. She pioneered the technique of Yonath ribosomal crystallography to study the mechanisms underlying protein biosynthesis. Ribosomes translate RNA into proteins, essentially giving the instructions for building an organism. Understanding this mechanism could result in new medicines, especially antibiotics.
Yonath is the first researcher at the Weizmann Institute to win the Nobel Prize, where she heads the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly. Yonath and two others are sharing this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry. They will split the prize money equally, each receiving NIS 1.78 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 10, 2009
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