Nobel Prize "for studies of the structure and function of ribosomes".
Her work focuses on the processes that govern the key to life: the translation by ribosomes of DNA information. Ribosomes produce proteins that control the chemistry of all living beings. Since ribosomes are crucial for life, they are also a key target for new forms of antibiotic.
Until 2009, after 108 years of Nobel Prize history, the prize in chemistry had gone to only three women: Marie Curie, her daughter Irene Curie and Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, the last being given in 1964. In 2009 Ada Yonath became the fourth woman to receive this prize.
Conference of Ada E. Yonath. ConCiencia Programme 25/10/2010
